


What Remains

by Kelinswriter



Series: Valentine (Universe Three) [3]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, minor supercorp - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:42:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 43,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kelinswriter/pseuds/Kelinswriter
Summary: “Lena,” Maggie asked, “did you buy motherfucking Jurassic Park?”Or the one where Lena did, in fact, buy motherfucking Jurassic Park.And just to set the mood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8zlUUrFK-M---Part of Universe 3: the "Valentine" UniverseSee end notes for the usual, Jurassic Park-level content warnings.My special thanks toeks4s, my artist partner on this project. I can't wait for everyone to see what you've created.
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer, Sanvers
Series: Valentine (Universe Three) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1635244
Comments: 343
Kudos: 85
Collections: Sanvers Big Bang | 2020





	1. Chapter 1

_I could get used to this,_ Maggie thought as she sank into the buttery-soft, cream-colored leather seat. The soft, barely there hum of the jet engines was soothing, and she let her eyes drift shut and turned her face toward the sun streaming in from the porthole window.

Slender fingers slipped through hers, and Maggie lifted one thumb, automatically pressing the stone of Alex’s engagement band upright so it didn’t catch against the inside of her finger. She let her thumb slide down, grazing over the matching wedding band as if to reassure herself that it was still there. It had been on Alex’s finger for almost two years now, but to Maggie, it still felt a bit like a dream.

“Hey,” Alex said, and leaned over to kiss Maggie’s temple. “Lena says we’ll be on the ground soon.”

“Did she tell you where we’re going yet?” Maggie asked, though from the position of the sun and the narrow strip of land off in the distance, she guessed they were somewhere off the coast of Central America. Maggie hadn’t seen land since they’d crossed over the Baja Peninsula, save for a few rocky green dots that looked barely large enough to hold much more than a house and maybe a tiny airstrip. 

“She says that all will be revealed in time,” Alex said in a mysterious voice, like she was trying to imitate the narrator in some spooky kid’s movie. “Oh, and that once I get there, I’ll never want to leave.” 

“After six months spent fighting off neo-Nazis, all I really care about is a pool and a bed.” Alex smirked, and Maggie let out a low chuckle. “Seriously, Danvers. Is that all you think about?”

“With you in a bikini? How do you expect me to think about anything else?” Alex tucked her head against Maggie’s, rubbing her thumb over the back of Maggie’s hand. “Though I am looking forward to finding out about this mysterious object that Lena keeps hinting at. If it does turn out that aliens were here back when humans were still just a gleam in evolution's eye…”

“Then it would revolution the science of exo-biology and rewrite the entire history of the development of life on Earth.” Maggie shifted her eyes to look over at Alex, giving her a slow, sly grin. “You might have mentioned this once or twice.”

“Good thing you think I’m cute when I’m giddy,” Alex purred, and then planted a quick kiss on the underside of Maggie’s jaw. She had, in fact, been positively bursting with excitement ever since Lena had offered them an all expenses paid trip to an island somewhere off the coast of Costa Rica. Where they were going was a closely guarded secret, though Maggie had gleaned that it was part of some mysterious project that Lena had apparently been working on for years. The last part had made Maggie a bit hesitant, because the name _Luthor,_ when combined with _mysterious project,_ usually resulted in thousands of lives lost and billions in property damage. But Lena was, for all intents and purposes, a member of the Danvers family at this point, so Maggie supposed she should just relax and enjoy the free vacation. After all, Alex had packed a bikini, too. 

Alex nuzzled deeper into Maggie’s side and let out a quiet sigh. “If nothing else, it’ll be good to get away for a few days.”

“Yes, it will,” Maggie said, and tightened her grip on Alex’s hand. Work had been hard for both of them these last few months, but it had worn on Alex the most. Lena’s offer of a vacation — which, Maggie suspected, was a precursor to some sort of job offer — had come along at just the right time. Maggie just wondered where she would fit, should the cushy job actually materialize. As much as they liked to joke about being each other’s arm candy, Maggie wasn’t quite ready to give up her own career.

The cockpit door swung open, and Lena emerged, calling out, “We’ll be landing in about five minutes.” She leaned against the bulkhead, looking elegant as usual in her white suit and very expensive heels, and crossed her arms in front of her. “Look at you two, cuddling like newlyweds.”

Maggie smiled, and felt, against her cheek, Alex’s mouth do the same. She knew if she looked over she would see Alex blushing, and it made Maggie love her all the more. 

“You should try it sometime,” Maggie said to Lena, and watched her usually unflappable friend grow flustered like she was a schoolgirl being called out for having a crush. 

“I…” Lena cocked her head to the side as if she was listening to the plane, though Maggie had a feeling that she was using the engine’s change in pitch as an excuse to flee. “I have to go fly the plane now.” She cast a nervous glance at Alex and then disappeared into the cockpit, closing the door firmly behind her. 

“She’d better put a ring on it, if she knows what’s good for her,” Alex muttered. 

Maggie let out a soft chuckle. “Let your sister and her girlfriend figure that out for themselves.” The plane angled steeply and began to descend, and Maggie glanced out the window, still seeing nothing but blue. “I really hope there’s land down there somewhere.” 

Alex turned to look out the other window. “It’s over on the right.” 

Maggie turned in time to catch a glimpse of lush greenery, just as the plane banked into a sharp curve. When they leveled off, she could see the island where they were about to land. Most of it seemed to be covered in jungle, though there were a few open, grassy plains that were being grazed by a mix of Hereford and Holstein cattle. Further off in the distance, she could see a high mountain range with a waterfall cascading into a river that snaked toward the sea. Then the plane neared the ground, and all that was visible were the outbuildings and landing strip of a small airport. 

“Well, wherever we are, it’s very pretty,” Maggie said. 

“I bet the beaches are great,” Alex replied, and kept a tight grip on Maggie until the plane taxied to a stop. “Kara’s going to be jealous.”

“Too bad she had to go on a worldwide press tour for _winning the Pulitzer,”_ Maggie said, and Alex just rolled her eyes, but with a certain pride, at the mention of her sister’s career-defining feat. Maggie unbuckled her seat belt and then nudged Alex’s shoulder. “You ready to have an adventure, Danvers?”

“What I’d really like is a shower and a nap.” Alex stepped into the aisle between the jet’s twin rows of seats and then backed up a few paces so Maggie could step out as well. “Ladies first.”

“You just want to look at my butt,” Maggie said, and laughed when Alex pointedly glanced down at Maggie’s ass and then, with a sly grin, shrugged in agreement. 

The cockpit door opened, and Lena once again stepped through. As she did, the main cabin door unlatched and glided open, revealing a set of stairs that had been pushed into place. Lena looked over at them both, beaming like a carnival barker that had just enticed them into being the first rubes to try a new ride, and said, “My friends, welcome to Isla Nublar.”

They emerged onto a tarmac so recently repaved that the smell of fresh asphalt still lingered in the air. Across the way was a terminal with five gates, and a banner near the roof that said, _Isla Nublar: Home of Jurassic World._ Beneath it in small letters was the obligatory _An L-Corp Company._

Alex was squinting up at the sign with wonder in her eyes, but Maggie’s attention was drawn to Lena, who looked like she was trying to savor every second of their reaction to her carefully planned surprise.

“Lena,” Maggie asked, “did you buy motherfucking Jurassic Park?” 

Lena winked and pointed toward a silver Range Rover that was being loaded with their luggage. Alex, already grinning like a fool, grabbed Maggie’s hand and tugged her toward the vehicle.

“You knew,” Maggie accused as Alex opened the back door and gestured for Maggie to climb inside. 

“I strongly suspected,” Alex replied. She waited for Maggie to slide over, then climbed in beside her. Lena, meanwhile, had taken the front passenger seat, leaving the driver’s seat open for the slender, copper-skinned man who was loading their luggage. He glanced at Maggie in the rear view mirror as he started the vehicle, smiling slightly as Alex and Lena dove into a very nerdy conversation about this project that, Lena said, she had been working on for almost ten years. 

“Straight to the hotel please, Carlos, and thank you again for waiting when we were running late,” Lena said, and Maggie noted the deference she showed to this man who was, apparently, much more than a nameless functionary. Or perhaps, Maggie thought, Lena really did live up to her reputation as one of the best bosses in all of National City. 

Lena turned back to Alex then, the two of them going back and forth about somatic cells and spindle proteins and a bunch of other scientific techno speak that went way over Maggie’s head. She studied the scenery instead, noting the wild interplay of greenery interspersed with blasts of wild color. Occasionally the foliage seemed to ripple, and not just from the wind, and Maggie was left with the distinct impression that there was life lurking in its depths. Some of the observers, she was sure, were hiding for safety. But occasionally, she got the sense that something more predatory might be waiting in the dark. 

“It was John’s dream, you see,” Lena said, pulling Maggie out of her reverie, and she turned, paying attention for the first time since the ride began. 

“John as in John Hammond?” she asked, remembering the name of the famous billionaire who had dreamed up this park back when she was a teenager. 

Lena nodded, and then let out a bemused laugh as her wind-whipped ponytail hit her in the face. She turned to raise her window, cutting off the humid, swirling air coming from outside, and then twisted around to look over the passenger seat at Maggie. “This island was John’s dream back when I was still a little girl. He would visit our house sometimes when he and my father had business to conduct, and he would often stay for dinner afterward. And he always had stories about the island that he was going to bring to life someday.” She paused for a moment, and Maggie saw, by the tears in her eyes, that it wasn’t Hammond’s tall tales, but his kindness to a lonely little girl, that had truly stuck with Lena.

“He died a few years after the first attempt at getting the park going collapsed, didn’t he?” Alex asked, and Maggie felt Alex’s hand slide into hers. Fathers, and the father figures that took their place, were a tender subject for all three of them; for everyone in their little found family, in fact.

“It broke his heart,” Lena said, with such sadness in her voice, and Maggie knew then that fulfilling Hammond’s dream, even though he was long gone, was the main reason why Lena was now spending billions on this mad enterprise. “After I bought the company’s assets, I initiated a thorough review of what had happened. I’m confident that this time around, it will be different.” 

“You’re saying you’ve found a way to make sure the dinosaurs don’t eat the tourists?” Maggie asked, and felt Alex kick the side of her leg. She glanced over and saw Alex shoot her a warning frown. “Look, I think the science is cool too, but let’s be real. Re-introducing species that ate mammals for breakfast for millions of years is not the smartest move, even if we do think we run the planet now.”

“And yet we live in a world in which aliens who are just as powerful live right alongside us every day, and we don’t so much as bat an eye,” Alex pointed out, and Maggie could tell that Alex’s first, deepest instinct — to protect Kara above all else — was coming to the fore. 

“Point taken,” Maggie said, and shot Alex a glance that said she would tone it down, but not before she’d said her peace. “Look, I think it’s amazing, and I’m not trying to undermine your achievement in any way, Lena. It’s just that I spend my life trying to protect and serve, and that —“ She pointed toward the thick jungle lining the sides of the road. “—is just as, if not more dangerous, than the right wing nut jobs and David Koresh wannabes that I just spent the better part of a year trying to stop.” 

“I’d rather deal with an animal, doing what it does, than an ideologue who thinks murder is the gateway to Heaven any day,” Lena said, a defensive note in her voice, and Maggie thought again about fathers and daughters, and what a daughter would do to protect a father when his memory was threatened. 

“I agree,” Maggie replied. “But unfortunately, the result is quite often the same.”

“Hey, looks like we’re here,” Alex said, and Maggie almost snorted aloud at how desperately her wife was trying to change the subject. 

Maggie tilted her head, looking out the window at the multi-story resort rising off in the distance. It was made of brick that glowed rose in the sun, and was surrounded on all sides by a man-made lagoon. Carlos turned right, taking the car through a gated entrance, and within minutes they had arrived at an awning-covered private entrance. He unloaded their bags onto a luggage cart, and soon after they were being whisked upward in an elevator. 

“I put you in the presidential suite,” Lena said as the elevator came to a halt. She handed each of them a key card and, with a wry smile, said, “There’s some sandwiches and snacks on the sideboard, and a nice bottle of champagne on ice. Dinner is at 7:30 on my rooftop terrace.”

“Thank you, Lena,” Alex said as they stepped off the elevator, baggage cart in tow. 

“Have fun,” Lena said, and winked as the elevator door whisked shut.

“What, exactly, does she think we’re going to do?” Alex asked, though her fingertips strumming across the inside of Maggie’s wrist said she had some definite plans. 

“Gee, I wonder,” Maggie said, and pulled Alex into a kiss. 

They unpacked, they showered, and they each had a sandwich, which they ate on the balcony while overlooking a vast, turquoise blue bay. Eventually the champagne got popped, and shortly after that, they retreated inside to a very large, very comfortable bed. 

“Sattler,” Maggie said later, when her mind had been given sufficient time to drift. 

Alex lifted her head from between Maggie’s legs and looked up at her, brow crinkling. Alex’s hair, Maggie noticed, was glowing red in the late afternoon light. “What now?” 

“Sattler,” Maggie repeated. “That’s the name of the hot scientist. The one whose book I read after this whole thing went to hell.” 

“Maggie Sawyer, love of my life,” Alex said, her response accompanied by soft kisses to Maggie’s belly. “Do you really think now is the time to be bringing up one of your teenage crushes?”

“But it’s science,” Maggie said, and groaned when Alex, in a fit of pique, reminded her of what she could both give and withhold with just a flick of her fingers. “You read it, right? You must have.”

“Yes, I read it,” Alex said, punctuating her words with one well-timed bite to the inside of Maggie’s thigh. “And later, we can discuss it in intimate detail.” Alex’s tongue darted outward, and Maggie groaned again. “But for the moment, I would suggest we focus our conversation on…” Alex paused, and three fingers moved as one. “Other topics.”

“Okay.” Maggie’s hand found Alex’s head, her fingers threading into Alex’s hair while stars danced and whirled behind her eyelids. “That is definitely a topic for…” She sucked in deep breath. “For later.”

Alex hummed, and went back to what she had been doing.

“Fuck science,” Maggie murmured, and then, on an indrawn breath, “Fuck. Oh, fuck. Science.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “She’s courting you, Babe. And I think she thinks, if she can dazzle you enough, that you’ll accept her invitation to dance.”
> 
> \----
> 
> See end notes for content warnings.

“Hey, Sleepy,” Maggie whispered against Alex’s temple. “Time to wake up.”

Alex groaned and pressed her face into Maggie’s bare shoulder. She felt Maggie rub her arm while, at the same time, her leg slid against Alex’s shin. Everything was soft and warm and perfect and Alex never wanted to move. It was, she thought, one of the pitfalls of being married to Maggie Sawyer, who was both a cuddle monster and fucking fantastic in bed.

“We have dinner with Lena in an hour and we both need to shower,” Maggie said as Alex, resistant, nuzzled deeper into her neck.

“Shower sounds nice,” Alex purred, and felt Maggie quiver beneath her as she let out a knowing laugh.

“Not like that, Danvers,” Maggie said in a teasing tone. “I mean an actual, manage to make ourselves clean and presentable shower.” 

“Fine,” Alex said, with a dramatic sigh. She kissed the scar running from Maggie’s right clavicle to just above her breast, the one that had, unexpectedly, led to their shift from friends to lovers to wives. “I suppose we should be polite and make an appearance.”

Maggie hummed in agreement. “Besides, you know you’re curious about what Lena is up to.” 

“She’s reopening the park,” Alex mumbled into Maggie’s shoulder, and then leaned her head back enough that she could look Maggie in the eye. “I thought that was fairly clear.”

“Oh, please.” Maggie grinned down at Alex, a knowing gleam in her eyes. “She’s courting you, Babe. And I think she thinks, if she can dazzle you enough, that you’ll accept her invitation to dance.” 

“You mean go to work for her?” Alex had to admit the thought had crossed her mind, but not enough for her to consider it as a serious possibility. But Maggie, whose ability to chew on bits of evidence until the solution to the most complicated puzzle became breathtakingly clear, had clearly put a lot more thought into it. 

“You’re a bio-engineer, which means you’re exactly the type of big-brained genius she needs to pull off this crazy scheme,” Maggie said, pressing her fingertip into the tip of Alex’s nose for emphasis. “Plus, she knows that the DEO has been pissing you off something fierce for the last year. Add in that you’re basically in-laws at this point, and it becomes pretty obvious.”

“I don’t know,” Alex said, thinking back on her conversations with Lena in the lead up to their trip. “It was all about the science with Lena. It usually is.”

“Science is Lena’s business,” Maggie pointed out. “And you, Alex Danvers, are a smart investment.” 

“I guess.” Alex tried to imagine what it would be like to move into Lena’s corporate world. She’d have a lab with everything she wanted at her disposal — probably even more than what the DEO could provide. But without access to the DEO mainframes and its treasure trove of classified information, would she be able to use that equipment as effectively? And even if she could, did she want to spend the rest of her life bio-engineering glorified amusement park rides?

“I guess we’ll have to see what she says at dinner,” Alex said. She slid one hand down, resting it over Maggie’s diaphragm, and felt her own breathing sync with that comforting rise and fall. “How would you feel about that? Me leaving the DEO, I mean. Maybe even moving here for work.”

“There would be a lot to figure out.” Maggie lifted her left hand and waved it at their luxurious surroundings. “Would it be nice to live in a place like this, and to not have to spend my days chasing down drug dealers and murderers? Sure.” She lowered her hand to Alex’s head, scratching at the short hairs at the base of her skull, and Alex, as always, stretched into that touch like a cat preening during an ear rub. 

“But what useful purpose do I have here?” Maggie asked, and Alex could hear a hint of fretfulness in her wife’s voice. “I’m not qualified to run security on the animals, which means the only gig for me is riding herd on tourists. And finding missing kids and locking up drunks is not what I envisioned as the next step in the career plan.” 

“So that’s a no from you, if Lena asks?” Alex said, and felt, deep in her stomach, a tendril of disappointment begin to bloom. 

“I didn’t say that.” Maggie smiled down at Alex, the tenderness in her gaze soaking into Alex’s skin like sunlight. “If you decide that this is what you want, I will support you in it one hundred percent. And if working remotely or commuting down here a few days a week isn’t an option, then we’ll figure out what that means for us.” 

She leaned down and kissed Alex’s forehead, and Alex wrapped her arm around Maggie, her whole body straining toward that gentle touch. Of all the wonders Lena might show her, Alex realized, none would ever be as profound or mysterious as how she felt when Maggie Sawyer’s lips were on her skin. 

“I love you,” Alex whispered, and felt Maggie nuzzle against her, and then tuck her forehead against Alex’s.

“I love you, forever,” Maggie murmured. She smoothed her hand down Alex’s back, letting out a quiet sigh. “But before we get too deep into this, you should find out what Lena’s proposal actually is. So…” She kissed Alex on the mouth, slow and warm, and then, just as Alex relaxed into it, smacked her on the ass. “Get your butt in the shower.” 

“You’ll pay for that later,” Alex said, though she was mostly teasing. Mostly.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Maggie said with a grin, and pushed Alex in the direction of the bathroom.

________

They arrived at dinner a fashionable fifteen minutes late. It wasn’t just because they did, in fact, end up in the gigantic shower together, but also because Maggie’s hair took forever to dry. It was still curling damply against her bare shoulders when they got into the elevator, and Alex wrapped a lock around her fingers, smiling down at her wife. “You look beautiful.”

“Thanks,” Maggie said, and Alex saw a slight blush stain Maggie’s cheeks. She was wearing a patterned orange sundress, the same one she had worn to dinner on the first night of their honeymoon on Santorini. Alex had a vivid memory of peeling her out of it, one that, Alex thought, she might want to replicate later.

She’d opted for something a little dressier than her usual jeans and t-shirt for dinner; form fitting, silvery-gray pants and a dark blue blouse. She was wearing strappy heels, and Maggie had opted for low-heeled sandals, which exacerbated their height difference even more than usual. One glance down at the angle this gave her on Maggie’s cleavage made Alex want to wear higher heels more often. 

Lena, for once, was not wearing heels. She was barefoot, in fact, and wearing a flowing blue dress that fluttered in the breeze swirling over the rooftop terrace. It encompassed all but a small section of the top of the building and afforded a magnificent view of the western half of Isla Nublar and its harbor. Alex could see the long docks where the cruise ships and ferries would soon land, ready to disgorge thousands of passengers onto the island. There were shops and beaches nearby, as well as a light rail system that would carry them to the hotel and casino complexes that lined the street below. The one they were standing on top of was the crown jewel, of course; the most luxurious and, Alex was sure, by far the priciest. 

The project’s public facade had clearly been thought through with incredible detail, and Alex had no doubt that, knowing Lena, the science underpinning the park’s animal population had been too. The potential for it seemed limitless, if it was managed well.

_And with the money Lena would offer, I could probably pay off my student loans with the signing bonus alone,_ whispered a soft voice in the back Alex’s mind.

Maggie glanced at Alex and shrugged, almost as if she too could hear it. Then Maggie looked toward Lena, who had come over to stand beside them. 

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Lena asked. “If you crane your neck just a little bit, you can see over the top of the T. rex amphitheater that’s on the south corner of what we call Downtown Jurassic. That’s where we keep Issy, the T. rex who is featured on all of our brochures. She’s a bit of a diva.”

Alex shaded her eyes and peered to where Lena was gesturing, finding the amphitheater with _TYRANNOSHOW_ in big red letters on its marquee. Its interior appeared to be empty, although Alex could swear she heard the T. rex’s signature roar drifting toward them on the wind. 

“This whole thing is astonishing,” Alex said, and looked over at Maggie, who was still searching eagerly for any sign of the Issy inside the high-walled venue. “Thank you for inviting us down here, Lena. It’s nice to get away.”

“With everything that happened in the last year, it seemed smart to get out of National City for a while.” Lena smoothed down her skirts, which were caught in a sudden gust of warm, swirling wind. “I would live down here full time if I could manage it, but I don’t think I could convince Kara to give up working at CatCo to write the island’s newsletter.”

“It would be a beautiful place to have a little cottage by the beach,” Maggie said.

Lena looked down at Maggie, a slight smile on her lips. “That could probably be arranged.” 

_Here we go,_ Alex thought, and felt Maggie nudge her foot. Just then, a member of Lena’s staff informed her that dinner would be served in fifteen minutes, and so they drifted over to the enclosed veranda and its fully stocked bar. 

“So you said that something interesting was found in one of the excavations you’ve been funding,” Alex said. “Was that excavation here, or somewhere else?”

“In Colorado, actually,” Lena said as she poured out a Cabernet Sauvignon for Alex, Merlot for Maggie, and a Chardonnay for herself. “On some land I own near the Utah border, near Dinosaur National Park.”

“Some of the best finds have been made in that area,” Alex said, remembering the books on paleontology she had devoured as a teen. “What was the goal of the expedition?”

“To diversify the DNA available to us,” Lena explained. “Data sampling from what is currently available got us started, but for the species we’ve replicated to thrive, the gene pool needs to be broadened. So my goal has been to find as many different fossils as I can in order to increase our options for extracting residual DNA.”

“So your plan is to let the dinosaurs breed?” Maggie asked as they sat down at a round table, set for three, just a few feet from the bar. “Diversity doesn’t matter if you’re cloning every animal. But if you think they’re going to breed, then variety would be important.”

Lena nodded. “One of the unanticipated consequences of John’s original program was that some of the dinosaurs, who were all engineered as female, experienced sequential hermaphroditism as an adaptation to their environment.” 

Maggie looked at Lena, her brow furrowed in confusion, and Alex said, “They changed sexes so they could make babies.”

“Convenient.” Maggie turned to look at Lena. “So you’re planning for that?”

Lena shrugged and took a sip of her wine. “It seems wiser just to let nature take its course this time.” She looked at Alex, smiling conspiratorially, and said, “But here is where it gets interesting. During the dig, my team found what could only be a piece of engineered technology.”

“But that’s…” Alex was about to say _impossible_ , then stopped herself. Kryptonians had been exploring the galaxy for thousands of years when humans were still figuring out the basics of civilization. There was nothing to say that other, far more ancient cultures might have been visiting Earth while the dinosaurs were still thriving.

She looked over at Lena, who arched an eyebrow and said, “I know. Imagine the possibilities.” 

“Was there evidence of the alien species with the fossil?” Alex asked. “Or was it just there by itself, as if someone had dropped it?”

“Well…” Lena let out a soft laugh. “The technology was found with a T. rex fossil, and based on its placement, we think it may have been lodged in its digestive tract. Which means…”

“It ate him,” Maggie said, and snorted. “Poor guy.”

“Yes, not the most pleasant ending.” Lena took another sip of her wine. “Based on that, it’s reasonable to surmise it may be a unique artifact. Perhaps after that incident, the visitors opted to move on to a more friendly planet.”

“But what is it?” Alex asked, her intellectual curiosity warring with her instincts, as head of the DEO, to catalog and control any unknown alien tech that might be lying around. “I’m guessing not a weapon, because otherwise you would have called me, but honestly, Lena, I’m a bit irritated you didn’t tell me immediately no matter what. Who knows what this technology is capable of.”

“I am sorry that I didn’t reach out sooner,” Lena said, and Alex could tell that Lena had, in fact, been grappling with the ethics of the situation for quite some time. “After President Marsdin resigned, it felt prudent to withhold my findings until I could be certain the device wouldn’t be used for harm. And I’m glad I did, considering what might have happened if Agent Liberty or one of his minions had taken control of it.”

“What would they have been able to do?” Maggie asked, and Alex could see that she, too, was curious, despite her natural skepticism. “Clearly you’ve figured it out.” 

The first course of their dinner arrived just then, and by mutual consent they all waited in silence as their salads were laid out in front of them and their wine glasses topped. Lena thanked their server and waited for her to withdraw, then looked over at them with anticipation in her eyes. She was, Alex realized, as excited to share her findings as she was at having made the actual discovery. 

“At first I thought it was some sort of data storage device,” Lena explained. “But over time, I realized that it is, in fact, a neural interface.” 

Alex considered what that might mean based on her own, somewhat limited understanding, as both a scientist and as someone who had experienced that sort of technology firsthand. “So it was developed for this species to communicate with each other directly, mind to mind?” she asked after a moment. 

Lena shook her head. “To communicate with the dinosaurs,” she said and, when Alex gaped at her, added for emphasis, “Directly. To tap into their minds.”

“Okay, that’s crazy,” Maggie said, and let her fork drop onto her plate with a cherry tomato still speared on it. “Why would anyone want to do that?”

“To use them as a weapon, maybe?” Alex surmised, and saw Lena give a slight nod, as if she too had been considering the possibility. “Imagine a T. rex on a battlefield under the guided control of a sentient being. It would be like the war elephants of ancient times, only without the years of training required to manage their behavior.”

“Ew, that’s gross,” Maggie said, a look of profound disgust on her face. “I’m glad the guy got eaten. He deserved it.” 

"As someone who has experienced mind control a couple of times," Alex said, and felt Maggie reach for her hand, threading their fingers together tightly, "I will say that it is not easy to cope with the feeling of being controlled, especially when you're being used to harm someone else." She looked over at Lena, who gave her a sympathetic nod. "I know Kara doesn't talk about it much, but what happened with Myriad and the White Martian was hard on us both."

“I understand that, and combat is certainly an option,” Lena said, and Alex could see, from the compassion in her face, that Kara had been perhaps more kind than she needed to be when sharing those dark stories. “But there could have been other applications too. Construction labor, for instance, or clearing forests.” She paused for a moment, as if carefully considering her next words. “Based on my research, my current theory is that the makers of the device may have been attempting to evolve sentience in the creatures with which they were interfacing.” 

“So they were trying to make smart dinosaurs.” Alex thought about a world in which dinosaurs hadn’t evolved into birds and reptiles, but into bipedal, thinking creatures capable of building technology and maintaining a shared history. “It’s certainly possible that, had they not been wiped out by that asteroid hitting the Yucatán peninsula, eventually the dinosaurs might have produced a sentient species.” 

“Nearly half of the alien population of National City is closer to reptile than mammal in terms of physiology. I’m told,” Maggie gave Alex a pointed look, “that nationwide it’s closer to 60 percent mammal, 40 percent reptile, but many reptilian species prefer National City’s climate.” 

“I’ll get the NCPD those updated numbers next week, I promise,” Alex said under her breath. “I’ve just been a little slammed.” 

“Yeah, you have,” Maggie conceded, and squeezed Alex’s hand. She looked over at Lena, who was, once again, looking at them with a bemusement in her gaze. “What?”

“Just the two of you, partners in work and life.” Lena gave a wistful smile. “I envy that.” 

“It’s pretty great,” Alex said, and wondered if it was something she would be willing to give up, even for a chance at rewriting the history of the alien presence on Earth. She looked over at Maggie, who was returning her gaze with the steady, trusting calm that Alex had learned to lean on whenever she felt uncertain. “Now that I know the reason you asked me to come here, I have to ask when I can see this artifact.” 

“First thing tomorrow,” Lena said, and Alex could see that, underneath her calm exterior, Lena was feeling relieved that Alex hadn’t lost her temper about being kept in the dark about the device until now. Lena had obviously hoped that an afternoon spent in the presidential suite with Maggie and a nice bottle of champagne might put her in a good mood. It had, she thought, with a fond look at Maggie, been a correct assumption.

Maggie let out a laugh. “Lena, you do realize what you’ve just done to me. Alex won’t sleep a wink tonight thinking about this. Which means neither will I.”

“I am sorry about that,” Lena said, chuckling softly. “But the lab where the tech is housed is on the other side of the island, and that road is best taken in daylight. We could chopper over, but that tends to disturb the animals, and I don’t like making things harder for my team than is necessary.” 

“Understandable,” Alex said, though her mind was already brimming with questions about whether the technology used a closed-loop NIS or some other, more exotic method. She looked over at Maggie, sheepish, and said, “You might want to download a book to your phone for when the tech talk goes into high gear.”

“Actually, I was thinking that Maggie might want to take a tour of the park while we’re at the lab,” Lena said, and Alex couldn't help but admire just how thoroughly Lena had planned their little excursion. “I’ve invited a few friends down to get a private glimpse of the park tomorrow and give me their feedback. I’d love to get your thoughts on how it’s set up as well.”

“My thoughts as a cop, or my thoughts as someone who was obsessed with dinosaurs as a kid?” Maggie asked.

“Both.” Lena arched an eyebrow and grinned.

“I suppose it will be more fun than watching you two stare at microscopes and computers all day,” Maggie said, and Alex was hit with a wave of love. She knew that Maggie would rather watch paint dry than hang out with a bunch of Lena’s buddies all day, but she would do it if it meant Alex could spend the day absorbing some new scientific wonder. And Alex was determined to reward her wife for it as soon as they returned to their luxurious suite. 

“Good, then that’s settled,” Lena said, and smiled like someone who had just laid down four aces in response to a Full House.

Their main course arrived then, and Lena waited until the Chilean sea bass was set in front of them before raising her glass in a toast. “To discovering an ancient mystery and making it new again.”

“Hear hear,” Maggie said, as they clinked their glasses together. 

“And to my wife,” Alex said, looking over at Maggie, “and her endless patience with my intellectual curiosity.” 

“It’s why I fell in love with you, Nerd,” Maggie said, and leaned toward Alex. They kissed, gently, and Alex felt a warmth run through her that had nothing to do with her excitement over new alien technology.

“Hear hear,” Lena said, smiling fondly, and raised her glass again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You worried about being eaten by the big bad dragon?”
> 
> \----
> 
> See end notes for content warnings.

Maggie awoke to the sound of a bird cooing outside the window. She slid out of bed, tucking her pillow into the space where she had been so that Alex, still sleeping, would have something to curl into, and went out onto the terrace. It was early yet; the light was gray, and the air was foggy from the marine layer still rolling in. Puddles lingered near the planters full of greenery that lined the terrace on either side, and Maggie tiptoed around them, though the soles of her feet occasionally splashed in the cool water.

The bird had fluttered away when Maggie opened the sliding glass door, but now it alighted on the terrace railing again. It was about the size of a pigeon, though with a shorter beak. Its plumage was mostly a silvery-gray, but around its throat was green, with just a hint of lavender. It looked at Maggie with a piercing gaze, blinked once, and then ruffled its feathers.

“Hey, Pretty,” Maggie said, weaving her way around one last large puddle before she reached the rail. “What are you called?”

The bird blinked at her, then cooed once, and Maggie, smiling, looked past it toward the bay, which was still and quiet. There was a black boat far in the distance; it looked too small to be a cargo ship, which meant it was probably some rich person’s private yacht. She wondered what it must be like to have access to that kind of luxury, and then laughed at herself, for of course she was living what it must be like right this instant.

“Can’t complain about having a friend who’s loaded,” she said to the bird, and it blinked and then cooed at her once again. Then it let out a squawk and dove off the railing, its wings unfurling only after it had dropped several stories. Maggie heard a whoosh overhead, the sound thick and heavy and filling her stomach with dread.

She looked up, and there, perhaps 100 feet above, were three dinosaurs, flying in a V formation.

It was eerie to watch them glide past, these winged creatures from another age. Their heads made Maggie think of pelicans: same long beak, same wide jaw. Two of them had blue crests, the third was red, and their wings, though gray, carried shimmering hints of color, which Maggie imagined must diffuse light like a prism under the sun’s rays. Their wingspan was perhaps twenty-five feet each, though the one at the front looked even larger. And Maggie had no doubt that any one of them could pick her up with ease.

Her instincts were screaming at her to hide, yet she stood there staring upward, frozen in both terror and awe.

“Pteranodons,” she heard, and felt Alex’s arms wrap around her waist. “Though I like to imagine them as dragons.”

“You think that’s where the legend came from?” Maggie asked. She was trembling, she realized, and Alex must have, too, because she tightened her grip. 

“Shhhh, Babe,” Alex soothed, and tucked her chin atop Maggie’s shoulder. “See that monitor wrapped around their ankles? That keeps them from flying into Downtown Jurassic’s airspace.”

“So Lena keeps the dragons on home confinement?” Maggie asked, and felt Alex’s chuckle reverberate through her body. She put her hands on Alex’s arms and drew them closer still, easing back into Alex until it felt like they were molded together. It settled her enough to keep her there, staring out at those wondrous creatures, though her overloaded limbic system kept insisting she run the fuck away. 

“I know we live in a world where we deal with aliens of all shapes and sizes, and that some of them could kill us at a glance,” Maggie said, and felt Alex tighten her grip. “But there is something about bringing back these creatures who died long ago that makes my skin prickle.”

Alex leaned her head into Maggie’s. Her breath, when she spoke, was warm against Maggie’s ear. “They’re just predators doing what they do. If given a choice, I’d rather have a world with more of them and fewer predators who kill because they choose to.”

“Maybe,” Maggie said, and found Alex’s hand against her abdomen. She tangled their fingers together, and felt Alex’s grip, firm and solid, push some of the fear away. “Maybe I just don’t like being prey.”

Alex kissed Maggie’s shoulder. “You worried about being eaten by the big bad dragon?” 

Maggie snorted. “Oh, my God. You went there.”

“I really did.” Alex said, and then giggled, in that adorably dorky way she had, and then fell silent again.

They stood there for a time, watching as the three Pteranodons continued out over the bay until the haze obscured it from view. There was a shimmer on the water — the faintest hint of pink — and Maggie knew that the morning sun was about to break through the clouds. 

“We’ve got a few hours before we meet Lena for breakfast,” Alex murmured. Her left hand traced a zigzagging path across the smooth cotton of Maggie’s sleep shorts, and Maggie felt the constant, simmering tension between them break into a sudden boil. “Should we make the most of it?” 

“Only if we get to start with you being my prey,” Maggie teased, and then groaned when Alex’s fingers slid over a curve and then, with sudden pressure, pushed up. “Not fair, Babe.”

“Nature isn’t fair,” Alex whispered. “And I am very hungry.”

“I suppose I could cope with being eaten today,” Maggie replied, and then burst into laughter when Alex lifted her off her feet and dragged her inside. 

\--------

The sun was pouring into their suite when they showered and dressed for the day — both in boots, jeans, and tank tops, with a jean jacket over top for Maggie and a black and white plaid button down shirt for Alex — and then headed to breakfast on Lena’s rooftop terrace. The quiche Lorraine was nearly gone when talk drifted to the flock of Pteranodons that had so startled Maggie that morning. 

“I strongly considered not engineering any avian species when I originally took over the project,” Lena said with a nervous frown. “But my team convinced me they were a necessary addition to the park. I blame _Game of Thrones_.”

“You don’t like the flying ones either?” Maggie asked, and felt Alex’s fingers brush against her shoulder in a quick, steadying touch.

Lena shook her head. “I have this recurring dream that I’m snatched up in broad daylight, and then two of them and fight over me until they drop me in the ocean. There’s this horrific sea creature, too.” She shuddered, her fingers plucking at the empty grape stem in her hand before she finally set it aside. “Kara insists that if I just fly with her more often, it will go away. But I don’t know.” 

“Perhaps it’s a multiverse bleed,” Alex said, referring to the theory that such vivid dreams were, in fact, a slippage between the various Earths that allowed people to catch a glimpse of their own realities in another universe.

“Well, if so, then the Lena Luthor in that one came to a horrific end.” Lena put her hand over her mimosa glass, stopping the server from giving her another refill. “Thank you, Gabriela, but I have to drive soon.” She clasped her arms on the table and looked over at Alex, giving her that charming, devil-may-care grin that always seemed to lead to trouble. “Are you ready to get started?”

Alex, Maggie saw, was vibrating with excitement, and she reached over, catching her hand. “She’s more ready than I am.” 

“You’ll have a wonderful time,” Lena assured her. “In fact…” She glanced over her shoulder, and Maggie realized that someone was walking toward them from the direction of the elevators. She squinted against the morning glare, as did Alex, who let out a sudden gasp.

“Winn!” Alex shouted, and a second later she was sprinting toward him, her chair tipping up on its back legs from the force of her departure. 

“Hey, Alex, don’t —“ Winn grunted as she wrapped her arms around him. “—crush me, I’m fragile.” He looked over Alex’s shoulder, grinning at Maggie. “Hey, Sawyer. How’s the other half of my favorite couple?”

“Better now that you’re here.” Maggie waited for Alex to let go, with one last squeeze, and then pulled Winn in for a huge hug. “When did you get back?”

“I’ve been here for about a week,” Winn said. “And if you think the jet lag on a trip to Europe is bad, then you should try it from the 31st century.”

“But why?” Alex asked, as Maggie stepped away. They were each, she realized, still holding one of his hands, as if that tangible connection was needed to believe he was really here.

“Because when you’re having IT problems, who better to find to fix it than the best IT guy in the universe,” Lena said, with a knowing smile. She walked up to Winn and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Good morning. Have you had breakfast yet?”

“Not yet.” Winn followed them to the table, taking the chair between Lena and Alex. He was, Maggie thought, looking more confident and self-assured than she remembered. Living in the future seemed to have been good for him, even if it did mean he was spending more time with Mon-El. 

“I’m dating this really great girl,” Winn said, after recapping several of his adventures in the 31st century. “She’s part of the Legion too.” 

“Name?” Alex asked, at the same time as Maggie said, “Does this one have an arrest record?”

“Wow, that’s a lot of like, protective big sister vibe at once,” Winn said, and chugged down the last of his mimosa. “Her name is Ayla and no, she’s not a criminal. In fact, she —“

He broke off as Gabriela returned and leaned down to speak in Lena’s ear. Lena smiled broadly and looked at them, saying, “Now that we’ve talked about the future, are you ready to explore the past?”

Maggie drew breath to speak and felt Alex nudge her. “Be nice,” Alex whispered in her ear, and Maggie rolled her eyes, knowing she’d been busted on the sarcastic remark that had been rolling around in her brain before it was even fully formed. 

But several minutes later, it came out, as such things inevitably did. “When did she become PT Barnum?” Maggie grumbled when they stopped in their room to use the bathroom and put on sunscreen.

“She’s just excited. I think this might be the first thing she’s ever done that isn’t built on something Lex or Lillian started.” Alex opened up the small backpack she carried with her when they were traveling and tucked two water bottles inside. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t envious. It really is a bio-engineer’s dream.” 

“Seems to me a lot of times, dreams like this end up nightmares.” Maggie tucked some water, a few granola bars, and her Glock into in her trusty messenger bag and slung it over her shoulder. “You ready?”

“You planning on shooting the dinosaurs?” Alex teased.

“Only if they try to make me their dinner.” Maggie walked over to Alex and put her hands on either side of her face, drawing her in close. “Please be careful out there. I mean it. Something about this…” She shrugged. “Just be careful.”

“You too.” Alex slid her index finger through Maggie’s front belt loop and tugged her closer. “But while you’re being careful, try to have some fun.”

“Yes, Dear.” Maggie drew Alex down into a kiss. “And try not to get sucked into another dimension or mind wiped or trigger an alien invasion.”

“I’ll do what I can.” Alex smiled into a kiss and then, still kissing Maggie, drew her toward the door. “I hope you have fun with Winn and…” She looked down at Maggie, her brow furrowing. “Did Lena ever say who the other guests were?”

“No, but let’s hope they’re not too annoying,” Maggie said as they got onto the elevator. 

She had jinxed herself, of course, because when the elevator doors opened on the lobby, the first thing she heard was an ear-splitting shriek.

“Aunt Alex!” 

“Oh, God,” Maggie said, and took three steps back until she hit the elevator wall.

“Be nice,” Alex said, trying not to laugh, and then walked out onto the lobby’s marble floor. “Ruby!”

“Oh. God,” Maggie said again, and watched as Ruby, racing toward Alex, was enveloped in a huge hug. Ruby chattered at Alex excitedly, and Alex just nodded and smiled, her face lighting up as she absorbed everything the girl had to say. 

Winn walked up alongside Maggie and nudged her elbow. “Did you know she was going to be here?”

“No,” Maggie said, and then muttered, “Do you think anyone would notice if we fed her to a T. rex when no one was looking?”

“Her mom, probably,” Winn said, and Maggie realized that Sam was standing with Lena, the two of them talking animatedly on the far side of the lobby next to a set of revolving glass doors. Beyond lay two Range Rovers — one for Alex and Lena, presumably, and the other for — 

“Aunt Maggie!” Ruby shrieked, and Maggie was knocked back on her heels by a ball of teenage energy. “It’s so good to see you! Did Aunt Lena tell you we get to go through the park together? I’m so excited!”

“Yeah, good to see you too, kid,” Maggie said, and looked over Ruby’s shoulder at Alex, who was biting her lip, her body shaking with laughter that she was barely holding back. Maggie shot her a death glare, and then patted Ruby on the back. “Hey, Ruby, oxygen is needed.”

“Ruby, just…let Maggie breathe,” Sam called out, and then walked over to the group. She hugged each of them in turn, and then tugged Ruby against her, saying, “Sorry for the hurricane. Ruby’s a little excited.” 

“I just can’t believe we’re here. It’s going to be so great!” Ruby exclaimed, and if not for Sam holding her, she would have bounced up and down. As it was she lifted off her heels repeatedly, while saying, at a speed almost too fast to process, “Ever since Mom told me that Aunt Lena was working on this, I’ve wanted to come see it, and now we’re finally here!”

“That was last week.” Sam rolled her eyes affectionately, and then looked over at Lena, who was just wrapping up a brief conversation with her staff. “It’s amazing. The pictures didn’t do it justice.” 

“Just wait until you see the rest.” Lena put her arm around Ruby and smiled down at her. She looked at the rest of them, barely suppressing a smirk when her eyes met Maggie’s, and said, “Shall we set out?”

She headed toward the doors, Winn, Sam, and Ruby trailing after her. Maggie hung back, finding Alex’s hand as the two of them crossed the lobby. 

“Did you know about this?” Maggie asked. 

“That it was Sam and Ruby?” Alex shook her head. “Makes sense, though. Lena wouldn’t want anyone beyond her inner circle to know about this until she’s ready to announce it.” 

“I’m starting to regret being in her inner circle,” Maggie groaned, and Alex swatted her hip. “Hey!”

“You can survive one day of a chattering teenager,” Alex said, a hint of scolding in her tone. “It’ll be good practice for when we have one of our own.”

“You really want one of those?” Maggie asked, and heard panic in her voice. 

“Well I don’t want _that_ one,” Alex said, bumping Maggie’s shoulder with her own. “But a shorter, slightly less grumpy version of you? Sure.” 

“It may take some convincing,” Maggie warned, but carefully, because the last thing she wanted to do was head their separate ways in the midst of an argument. 

But Alex just leaned down and whispered, “I’m very persuasive,” in Maggie’s ear, and Maggie felt her body react in ways that made it entirely clear her willpower wasn’t going to be any damn help when Alex was ready for a mini-Danvers to join their lives. 

They arrived outside to find the others had already climbed into the Range Rovers. Winn had taken shotgun alongside Carlos in the second car, with Ruby and Sam in the back. 

“There’s space here next to me, Aunt Maggie!” Ruby called out, and Alex snorted when Maggie recoiled against her. 

“Go. Have. Fun,” Alex reiterated, and nudged Maggie around until they were facing each other. She leaned down, giving Maggie a quick goodbye kiss. “I’ll see you later.”

“Be safe, please?” Maggie said, and felt the fear that had trickled down her spine on seeing a Pteranodon fly over her head return, with the same paralyzing force. “You and alien tech is a recipe for crazy shit.” 

“I will be home in time for dinner.” Alex held up her wrist, displaying the watch that Kara had given her for her birthday last year. “And if anything goes wrong, I have the Super signal for backup.”

“That’s one way for Kara to get out of her book tour,” Maggie said, and Alex let out a laugh. Maggie smiled up at her, and then pulled her down into another kiss. “I’ll see you later, Danvers.”

Alex grinned at her and then headed toward the passenger seat of the first Range Rover. Lena was behind the wheel, and Maggie answered her wave with a pointed “I will get you back for this” glare. 

“Fuck me,” she murmured when Lena just laughed at her. She trudged back to the second car and opened the door, climbing in with what she hoped approximated some level of enthusiasm. 

“Let’s get this show on the road, I guess,” she said, and heard Sam, on the opposite side of Ruby, chuckle knowingly.

“Aunt Maggie, I was just telling Uncle Winn that Triceratops can go 20 miles an hour,” Ruby said, again speaking at a speed that even Brainy, with his twelfth-level intellect, would have difficulty processing. “That’s faster than a T. rex, but way slower than a raptor, and…” 

Maggie turned her head and looked longingly out the window as the car rolled away.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _This could all be yours._
> 
> \----
> 
> See end notes for content warnings.

“Isn’t it amazing?” Lena asked she drove the Range Rover around a steep hairpin curve and crested a rise.

“It is,” Alex replied, rolling her window down to get a better view of the vista spread out before them. High cliffs on every side surrounded a vast, open plain covered in grassland. She could see herds of grazing dinosaurs off in the distance, and Pteradactylus soaring overhead, and further off, high fences that were, presumably, meant to contain the more predatory animals. There was a gorge directly in front of them, with a high bridge spanning its width. 

Lena gestured toward the bridge. “The island is essentially cut in half by this gorge, and this is the only way to get to the other side. Building it may have been the hardest part of the entire project.”

“Harder than cloning dinosaurs from mosquito blood trapped in amber?” Alex asked, grinning. 

Lena turned her head, tilting her sunglasses down. “Cloning is easy. Getting building permits from the Costa Rican government is not.” 

“Lucky for you, you’re charming and rich,” Alex said, and Lena just laughed and turned up the Pink song playing on the stereo. She began to sing along, and Alex joined her, all the while marveling at the gorge, which was so deep that she couldn’t even see its bottom. She followed its length with her eyes until she spied, far off in the distance, a waterfall flowing down from one of the high cliffs. She also spotted what looked like another bridge, this one made of rusted steel.

“I thought you said this was the only way across?” Alex said, pointing at the ancient bridge.

“Oh, that.” Lena shuddered. “That was from John’s original version of the park. It’s dangerously decrepit now, so it was simpler to just build a new bridge here on a spot that is actually more structurally sound. Inside the nature preserve, the only way to cross the gorge is via the tour’s monorail system. If you squint, you can see where it passes right in front of the waterfall.”

“Maggie’s going to love that close-up view,” Alex said, and bit back a chuckle at the thought of her wife trapped in a small train car with a hyperactive teenager for the next several hours. She just hoped that Maggie could put aside her annoyance long enough to enjoy the ride. 

“I hope Maggie doesn’t mind that I invited Sam and Ruby down this weekend too,” Lena said, with a note of contrition in her voice that said she knew exactly how obnoxious Ruby could be. “Sam said this was the best weekend because Ruby heads back to school in two weeks.” 

“As long as the monorail comes equipped with a bar car, Maggie will be okay,” Alex said, and Lena let out a laugh.

“There is a fully stocked mini-fridge in each VIP car,” Lena assured her. “Plus, Maggie has Winn to talk to.”

“Because he is not at all like a hyperactive teenager,” Alex said, and Lena laughed again. 

They reached the far side of the bridge, and in the space of a blink, the gorge was blocked from view by the thick foliage that came right up to the edge of the road on either side. Alex couldn’t help but think how vulnerable a car and its passengers would be if one of the larger or more aggressive animals ever got loose in that tangle. 

“So tell me more about this alien device,” Alex said, as a distraction from the thought of predatory eyes watching as they rolled by.

“You’ll be able to see for yourself in just a minute,” Lena said, and slowed the vehicle. 

They had arrived at a rectangular, one story white brick building which, save for a small perimeter, was surrounded on all sides by jungle. There were no visible windows, and the door was made of reinforced steel. Alex suspected that the bulk of the building was actually underground, and she was right, for when they entered, the first thing they did was walk inside an elevator that was operated by retinal scan. 

“What you’re about to see is the most closely guarded secret on this entire island,” Lena said as the elevator carried them downward. The steel doors opened onto a huge lab, perhaps three times the size of Alex’s workspace at the DEO. It was equipped with every conceivable piece of scientific equipment currently available, plus a few machines that, Alex was fairly sure, had yet to hit the market. She walked further in, turning to take it all in, and heard a dangerous thought resonate through her mind.

_This could all be yours._

“This is a duplicate of my lab at L-Corp, with a few refinements,” Lena said, leading Alex across the carefully organized labyrinth of workstations toward a large steel door on the far side of the massive room. “Most notably, a much more elaborately equipped secure room.” 

“That’s where you keep the device?” Alex asked. 

“Among other things.” Lena pressed her palm to the locking mechanism and presented her eye for a retinal scan. The door slid open, and Lena waited for lights to come up before ushering Alex inside. “This is alien artifact LC-072718.”

Alex walked inside the steel-walled room, which was empty, save for a pedestal topped by a rectangular steel lock box. Lena pressed a series of numbers into the keypad at its top, and an instant later, the lid slid back to reveal a small gold device. It was triangular in shape, with four runes incised into its surface and, on casual glance, looked more like jewelry than an advanced piece of technology. 

“How did you determine what it could do?” Alex asked. 

“The scientist in me wishes I could tell you it was discovered via rigorous testing methods,” Lena said, and Alex saw a hint of embarrassment color her usual reserve. “But the truth is, I was holding it and suddenly found my mind entangled with that of a small mammal trapped in the building’s ductwork.” 

“You ended up tangled up with a rat?” Alex asked, grinning at the thought of her refined, oh-so-composed friend scurrying through air conditioning vents.

“At least it wasn’t a cockroach,” Lena said with a wry look. She reached in and lifted the device, holding it on the flat of her hand. “Once I was able to break free, I realized it had tapped into my brain waves. Proximity played a role, but so, I believe, did frequency.” She looked up at Alex, her eyes filled with glee over her discovery. “In other words, it has to tune itself to the user. And it can do so more easily with some people than others.”

“Research in neuroscience does indicate that our brain waves are as unique as our fingerprints,” Alex said, thinking back on a paper she had read on the subject just a few weeks earlier. “So perhaps each device was tuned to a specific user.” 

“That’s my hypothesis,” Lena said. “And that would explain why I can use it but some others can’t.”

“You tried it on other test subjects?” Alex asked, stepping to the side so that Lena could carry the device out of the vault. Lena brought it to a lab table and set the device on a metal tray, and Alex followed, looking down on the object with a feeling of intense curiosity. “Was anyone else able to connect?”

“Of my test subjects, two felt nothing, one ended up with a splitting migraine, and one was able to make a tenuous connection with a test animal.” Lena let out a soft chuckle. “We used a river otter. The poor man was craving raw fish for a week.” 

“There are worse things to eat than sushi,” Alex said, and reached for a nearby magnifying glass so she could study the markings in more detail. “These definitely look machine made rather than hand carved. What did the metallurgical analysis reveal?”

“The outer layer is gold alloy, probably to enhance conductivity. Inside is an unidentified metallic blend that includes at least three elements not found on Earth.” Lena looked over at Alex, her gaze inscrutable. “Kara pulled some data from the Fortress of Solitude, but was unable to identify it either.” 

“So we’re dealing with an unknown species, but one sufficiently human-like that its brain wave technology may, in some circumstances, work for us too.” Alex’s mind swirled with too many questions to count: about the location where the artifact had been found, the types of animals it could connect with, and the ethics of using human test subjects without any clear understanding of what the device’s long-term effects might be. The most provocative question, of course, was whether it might be used to control humans in the same way that Myriad had, and if so, what that might mean should it fall into the wrong hands. 

But then Lena asked a question, and the ethics of the situation went right out the window. “Do you want to try it?”

“You would let me do that?” Alex asked, and Lena just shrugged. 

“I can’t exactly ask you to come all the way here without letting you take it for a test drive,” Lena pointed out. “Particularly since, without firsthand evidence, it’s nothing but a folk tale about a magical amulet.”

It was a bad idea. Alex had seen the damage that could be done by uncontrolled alien tech — had almost died from it, a time or two — and this object clearly needed to be studied in substantially greater detail. But Lena was right that, without a demonstration, it was nothing but a fairy tale. Alex was a scientist, and scientists needed data to observe.

And besides, it sounded like the worst that could happen was a rail-splitter of a headache. 

“Tell me what to do,” Alex said, and felt her stomach flutter with excitement.

“That’s the spirit,” Lena said, her face creasing in a wide smile. She backed toward the elevator, saying, “Give me just a minute.”

Alex’s thoughts whirled as she waited, and she paced around at first, trying to shake them off. _Bad idea_ seemed to be the loudest one, and in Maggie’s voice, and after a few seconds of it on repeat Alex pulled out her phone. It wouldn’t hurt to talk to Maggie, if for no other reason than to steady her nerves, and so she drew her phone out of her pocket and clicked on Maggie’s contact.

It rang, and it rang, and it rang, and eventually, Alex concluded that the lab’s underground location was blocking service. “Sorry, Baby,” Alex murmured as she hung up. “You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.” 

The elevator doors dinged, and Lena returned, holding a calico cat in her arms. It dug its claws into her designer blouse, and Lena winced, soothing the creature with one smooth stroke up its back. “Is everything okay?” she asked, nodding toward the phone in Alex’s hand.

“I’m guessing this location must block signal,” Alex said, and tucked her phone into her back pocket.

But Lena just looked perplexed. “No, it’s crystal clear down here. Must be a glitch.” The cat in her arms tried to break away, and Lena murmured soothing words into its ear. To Alex, she said, “This is Jonesy. He lives upstairs and keeps the small rodents and dinosaurs at bay. And he makes a wonderful test subject.”

“What, no otter?” Alex asked, and Lena let out a chuckle.

“The otter was a one off. Long story.” Lena peeled the cat off her shoulder and set him on the table, catching him around the stomach with one hand and scratching behind its ears with the other when he tried to wander away. “Jonesy is our official mouser. He lives upstairs and is the lab’s front line of defense against rodents and small lizards.”

“He seems very sweet,” Alex said, while the cat stared at her like it would happily rip her throat out with one bite. “Does it bother him to do this?”

“We’ve done blood work after every attempt and there appears to be no lasting effects, other than him taking a long nap afterwards.” Jonesy let out a yowl, and Lena fussed over him for a moment before quietly continuing: “Brain scans revealed more activity in the pre-frontal cortex afterward, as it did on humans, but no other effects.”

Alex put her hand out, palm open, and waited for Jonesy to pad over and then cautiously sniff at her. After a few seconds her rubbed his face against her palm, and she reached around to scratch behind his ears. He submitted to it for a moment, looking up at her with pleasure in his yellow-green eyes, and then abruptly pulled away and turned so his butt was facing her, tail held high.

“I see how you are, you dumb cat,” Alex said as Lena, chuckling, caught him before he jumped down from the table. Alex looked over at Lena, weighing the risks once again. Maggie’s voice resonated in her head, her _Are you sure about this, Danvers?_ a clear reminder that if anything went wrong, Maggie would be mad as hell. But Alex knew that even Maggie’s ire wasn’t going to keep her from this opportunity.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Alex said, to Lena’s ecstatic grin.

“Wonderful,” she said, and directed Alex to sit in one of the chairs at the conference room table on the far end of the lab. Lena brought Jonesy over and plopped him down on the table, and Alex caught him around the waist, holding on loosely while the cat looked at her with a quizzical expression.

“You ready, Buddy?” Alex asked, and Jonesy chuffed and arched his back in response. 

Lena, who had stepped away briefly, returned with the tray holding the alien device. She set it down on the far side of the table and picked it up, then came to stand beside Alex. 

“It fits against your temple,” Lena said, with a cool reserve. She was all business, as Alex would have expected her to be now that the experiment was underway.

“How does it hook on?” Alex asked, for the metal triangle had no discernible method for attaching itself to its wearer.

“Sensory osmosis is my best explanation,” Lena said, turning the device so that the runes were facing outward. She lifted it toward Alex’s temple, and Alex felt a twinge of uncertainty curl through her stomach. But Lena just gave her a reassuring smile and said, “This may feel a bit unsettling.”

The next thing Alex knew, the device was fastened against her temple, as surely as if it had been glued on. She lifted a hand to touch it, following it with her fingers from the point near her eyebrow to the base resting over the close-cropped hair above her ear. She felt a faint vibration against her fingertips, and warmth, too. 

“How do you remove it?” Alex asked, feeling curious, but also more than a little apprehensive.

“You just put your hand on it and think ‘detach’ and it easily comes away,” Lena explained. “I’m not quite sure how it works yet, but my sense is it has some sort of bio-resonant property. It comes alive, so to speak, when it senses it is about to be used.”

“That’s a bit stalkerish.” Alex brushed her fingers through Jonesy’s fur, as much to calm her own racing heart as to soothe the skittish feline. “The warmth and vibration I’m feeling. Is that normal?”

“It seems more noticeable when it’s compatible with the person wearing it, so that’s a good sign.” Lena put a steadying hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Go on. Give it a try.” 

Alex looked at the cat sitting in front of her, its tail twitching back and forth across the table surface. She lifted her hands to rest on his shoulders, feeling the muscles rippling beneath the thick layer of soft fur. Jonesy’s ears perked up, and he sniffed once, tilting his head in curiosity. The move reminded Alex of Maggie, and —

 _Human,_ came the thought, though it wasn’t a word so much as an impression. _Tall walking two-legged creature food snuggles female healthy smell._

Alex let out a gasp, and her own senses were flooded then, not just with the emotions of the animal, but with physical sensations — her hands on his back, her fingers stroking through his fur, his feet absorbing the cool surface of the conference table. And then another wave of emotions that her brain translated into some comprehensible form: _Pet pet don’t stop pet, purr nice human don’t bite want treat._

“Can you see through his eyes?” Alex heard, though it seemed like she was hearing it in stereo. She realized that she had closed her eyes at some point in reaction to the flood of stimuli. She opened them now, slowly, and saw the cat looking at her. But it felt like there was a second layer of sight, and in it, she was looking up at herself. 

_Fear,_ she felt, as she absorbed the stunned look on her own face. _Tall creature is fear. Need hide?_

She felt the cat’s emotions begin to overwhelm her then, his fear sparking a feedback loop that threatened to consume her entirely. Her body went into action, her legs pushing the chair back from the table with a loud scrape while she dragged air into her lungs like she was drowning in it. She heard a voice saying, “Detach, Alex, think of detaching,” but she couldn’t process it through a frantic need to hiss and claw and get away.

And then a voice that sounded a lot like Maggie’s said, _Detach, you dumbass,_ and suddenly Alex was back in her own body, watching the cat twist out of Lena’s grip and launch itself off the conference table, its yowl echoing through the cavernous lab as it weaved through the equipment stations in search of a hiding place. She felt the device fall away from her, bouncing off her shoulder before it clattered to the floor. 

“Fuck,” she whispered, closing her eyes, and felt Lena crouch in front of her, one hand resting on her shoulder, the other on her knee. 

“Alex?” Lena asked softly. “Just breathe deep, okay? I know it can be disorienting.”

“That’s an understatement,” Alex murmured, and realized then, with sudden clarity, that this was exactly why J’onn spent so much time meditating. She could only imagine how much harder it must be to hold on to one’s sense of self when merging with the mind of a sentient being. But if that power could be harnessed, in the way J’onn had harness his…

“Is this the part where you offer me a job?” she asked, and looked up long enough to see mirth dancing in Lena’s green eyes.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d caught on to that,” Lena said. “But if you’re ready to talk about it, then yes, it is.”

“Maggie is smarter than I am when it comes to this sort of thing. She called it last night.” Alex dared to lift her head a little higher, shaking it back and forth in hopes the cobwebs would dispel. “I’m guessing your interest isn’t mind control, but harnessing that neural interface.”

“Exactly,” Lena replied, her voice bubbling with excitement. “Imagine if we could adapt it to help paraplegics or quadriplegics regain the ability to walk, or so that people suffering from ALS could avoid its debilitating effects. Stroke victims, people with seizure disorders, even Alzheimer’s patients might receive potential benefits from this technology.”

And Alex thought then about her Nana Rachel, whose mind had been stolen from her by time and a cruel combination of genes, and looked at Lena with a hope she hadn’t felt since her mother had taken away her grandmother’s car keys.

“So this isn’t about engineering bigger dinosaurs?” Alex asked, not quite believing that she wasn’t being played.

“I already have people who can do that and do it well.” Lena waved a hand at the lab behind her. “This? This was built for a bigger purpose. And if we could find a way to make it work, then think of how many people we could help.”

“It’s tempting,” Alex said, and felt a headache begin to form behind her eyes. She breathed through it, blinking once, and looked at Lena, giving her a wry half-smile. “And once I don’t feel like someone’s trying to drive a railroad spike through my head, I’d like to look at your research.” 

Lena grinned at her then, like she’d just won a prize, and Alex held up a hand. “I’m not committing to anything, not yet. But the idea is definitely intriguing.” 

“It’s a start,” Lena said, and leaned down to pick up the device. “Let me get you some water, and once you feel better we can talk it through. Oh, and, if you don’t mind, I’d like to draw some blood, as I’ve been doing with others who’ve tried the device.”

“Of course,” Alex said, though her reply was cut off by a chime echoing through the room. 

Lena looked up at the TV monitor on the wall just over Alex’s shoulder, confusion on her face. “That’s not…that shouldn’t…” She frowned down at Alex. “Something strange is going on.” 

“What are you seeing?” Alex asked, and lifted her head, blinking several times to try to shake off the lingering dizziness. She turned just as the screen shifted to show a helicopter landing in the clearing outside the building. “Is that the CCTV?”

“Yes, it turns on automatically whenever there’s movement within the lab’s security perimeter.” Lena rose to her feet and frowned up at the screen. “There shouldn’t be a chopper active today. The island’s airspace is restricted, and…” She trailed off, and Alex saw Lena’s body language change, in an instant, from confusion to hyper-alertness. 

“Lena?” Alex pushed to her feet, clutching at the table when her balance wavered. She turned to look straight at the television. “What is it?”

“That’s not one of my helicopters,” Lena said, just as the camera showed ten black-clad men dressed in combat gear pile out of the helicopter and advance toward the building. Each of them was carrying a semi-automatic rifle. 

Alex frowned up at the TV screen. “Those are mercenaries. And I’m guessing they’re not yours.”

“No,” Lena said, and there was anger in her voice. “No, they most certainly are not.”

“Well, fuck,” Alex said, and then turned, looking around the lab. “Got any weapons?”

\----------

“So the herbivores only eat plants, but they consume way more than, like, a cow would, so some people say they’re actually more destructive to the environment…”

Maggie cast a longing glance at the minibar, covered in clear glass, at the front of the monorail car. “Is it too early to crack that open?”

Winn, sitting beside her, nudged her on the shoulder. “Come on, Sawyer. She’s not that bad.” 

Ruby’s voice droned on, nearly drowning out the hiss of the monorail flying down the tracks. “…and that’s because they fart way more than cows, and…”

Winn’s face twisted in disgust, and he pushed out of his seat. “Yeah, time for a beer.” 

He walked over to the mini refrigerator and pulled it open, drawing out two bottles of Smithwick’s. Handing one off to Maggie, he cracked the top on the other one and sat down again. “Cheers,” he said, and they clinked their bottles together.

Maggie took a sip of the ale and looked out the window, watching the jungle speed past. They had been climbing upward for a while, and Maggie assumed this meant they were approaching the gorge crossing that their guide, Carlos, had mentioned when he popped up on the TV screen at the start of their journey. 

“We’re starting you with the monorail tour,” he had said. “After that’s done, I’ll meet you for a hot air balloon ride, and then we’ll take the river cruise back to Downtown Jurassic.” 

Maggie had wanted to ask if guests of the park were ever allowed to hold still and actually look at anything, but after seeing the size of the Brachiosaurs and Apatosaurus grazing in the field she’d just passed, she understood the instinct to keep the tourists moving. Keeping people in perpetual motion made it less likely that some enterprising idiot would find a way to get trampled or eaten.

“…and Mom, you wouldn’t believe how much they poop! I saw pictures of it in the book Aunt Lena sent and it’s…it’s HUGE!”

“So how’s married life?” Winn asked, and Maggie looked over at him, one corner of her mouth lifting in smile. 

“Are you asking because you want to know how we’re doing, or are you asking because you’re thinking about doing it yourself?” Maggie asked. 

Winn chugged down several swallows of beer. “I might…um…be thinking. A little.” 

“Good for you.” Maggie punched him on the arm, and Winn let out a high-pitched whine and then broke into laughter when Maggie muttered, “Oh, come on.”

“You hit hard for a tiny person,” Winn teased, and Maggie cocked her fist like she intended to smack him again. “Hey! I’m telling Alex.”

“Alex would help me and you know it,” Maggie said, and Winn, grinning, nodded.

“I’ve really missed you two, and the rest of the gang, too,” Winn said. “I’m hoping I get to see everyone before I head back, but it just depends on when the Legion ship shows up.” 

“So why are you back, anyway?” Maggie asked. “Lena said something about a computer problem that only you could solve?”

“It’s…” Winn glanced out the window and let out a yelp of surprise. “Holy cow, that’s a T. rex!”

The monorail had been climbing steadily for the last several minutes, and they were now, by Maggie’s estimate, a good 100 feet from the forest floor. It made sense as to why, because they were high enough to be able to look inside the massive, high-walled paddock where the T. rex was kept. Maggie watched two of the giant predators batter and bash against each other in what appeared to be playful wrestling, while a third, bored by the display, crunched its way through the remnants of what Maggie assumed had, fairly recently, been a living, breathing cow. 

“Ew, Mom, look at that! Its teeth are all covered by blood and – AAAAAAHHHHHH!”

Ruby let out an ear-splitting shriek as the T. rex, apparently noticing their passing, lifted its head and bellowed loudly toward the sky. The sound penetrated the train car, amplified, Maggie suspected, by speakers in the walls, and Ruby shrieked again. 

“Ruby, please!” Sam said, with the sort of exasperation that only a mother could convey. She got up and walked over to their seats, leaning against the back. “Who said you two could open the bar without me?”

“You want one?” Maggie asked, and Sam nodded, not just once but several times. Maggie had a sense that she was going to keep nodding until that beer was in her hand.

“I’ll grab it,” Winn said, and stretched forward to pull another beer out of the fridge. “Hey, Ruby Patootie, you want anything?” 

“Just some water, Uncle Winn,” Ruby said, and then added, “Carbonated beverages like beer and soda increase our carbon footprint.”

“Yes, but they taste good,” Sam said, rolling her eyes, and took a grateful swig of the beer Winn passed to her. She pointed toward the window as the monorail climbed higher and then leveled out. “We’re about to cross the gorge.” 

Maggie turned just in time to see the gorge, with its steep rock walls, open up beneath them. The river was far below, and obscured by the mists of a huge waterfall that plunged downward off the sheer cliff several hundred feet above. If the windows could open, Maggie knew she would be able to feel the spray from the waterfall on her face, and to hear the rushing water thundering in her blood.

“How high is it?” she asked. 

“About 1500 feet,” Sam said. “Not the highest in the world, but it’s in the ballpark.” She glanced back at Ruby, who sat transfixed, and leaned in close to whisper, “Just wait till you see it from the hot air balloon.” 

“Yeah, I might sit that one out,” Maggie said, remembering the two emergency flights she’d taken with Supergirl — one when she’d been bleeding to death after Cyborg Superman shot her, and the other when they’d rescued Alex from the tank. Alex and Kara both had tried to convince her that flying could be fun when no one’s life was on the line, but Maggie was reluctant — _stubborn as fuck_ was the phrase Alex had used — to embrace the idea. 

“Don’t….don’t make me go up there by myself,” Winn murmured, and Sam, hearing him, nudged the back of his head. 

“Be nice or I’ll throw you across a room again,” Sam said, and Winn shrank down in his seat and took another sip of his beer. 

“Still glad you visited?” Maggie asked.

Winn shrugged. “No dinosaurs in the 31st century, so…” He tilted his head up to look at Sam. “Can I tell her what happened, or will Lena fly to the future and hunt me down if I do?”

Sam squinted, weighing the risks and rewards like the CEO she was, and then said, “I think it’s okay.” She shifted her gaze to Maggie. “Maggie had Reign figured out before anyone else, so maybe she can puzzle this one out too.” 

“Because she’s a detective who detects,” Winn said, like he’d come up with that all on his own. 

Maggie rolled her eyes and looked over at him. “So? Spill, Schott. What got you back through time?”

“Well, did Lena tell you about the thing they found?” Winn asked, just as the monorail car began descending from its passage over the gorge. Maggie felt her stomach swoop as they slid down the steep decline and lifted her beer high, holding it steady until it stopped sloshing. 

“The many millions of years old alien thing that she and Alex are looking at right now?” Maggie asked, remembering the borderline fanatical glee with which Lena had described the object. “Yes, she explained the basics at dinner last night. Is it something I should be worried about?”

“The device itself, I have no idea,” Winn said, and added as an aside, “though it really is kind of cool, if you think about it.”

“The potential of what it could do…” Sam said, and Maggie glanced up in time to see the dreamy look in her eyes. She glanced down at Maggie then, and shrugged. “Look, just because I’m a number cruncher doesn’t mean that I can’t want good things for the world.” 

“Okay, Ms. Rockefeller,” Maggie snarked, and Sam, grinning, took another swig of her beer. 

“Okay, so anyway,” Winn said, in that way he had when he was desperately trying to get a briefing back on track, “Lena got in touch because someone kept trying to hack into her mainframe, and every time, they were trying to get through the triple layers of encryption around the files on that device. And since…”

The train car jolted, and Maggie, through the armrest of her chair, felt it shudder and then speed up. 

“Did you…” she asked, but before she could finish, it jolted again, and Sam, standing behind them, was nearly thrown to the ground. 

“That’s not normal,” Sam said, clutching at the back of Maggie’s seat in a death grip. The train car began to shudder and creak, and Sam’s eyes went wide. “Guys, something is seriously wrong.”

The train accelerated even more, and Winn muttered under his breath, “Oh this is not good, this is so not good.” He pressed the intercom button on his seat, but nothing happened, and he slapped the armrest in frustration. “This is so not good.” 

“Everybody strap in,” Maggie said, and dropped her beer into the cup holder next to her seat. She fumbled for the seatbelt that, thankfully, the train’s designers had bothered to include. “And try to stay calm, all right?”

“Mom?” Ruby wailed, and Maggie cringed at the terror in the teenager’s voice. 

“It’s okay, Ruby,” Sam said, though it was clear she felt it was anything but. Maggie heard her settling into her seat and buckling in, while softly murmuring, “Just hang on to me, okay? I’ve got you, Baby.” 

The jungle was now whizzing by at far faster speeds than it should be, but Maggie could see that they were nearing an open space surrounded by a high fence that was covered in high voltage warnings. 

“Sam?” Maggie called out. “Do you know what we’re heading toward?”

“The Giganotosaurus paddock,” Sam said, her voice quivering with fear. “But before that, there’s a very sharp curve.”

“Oh, no,” Winn said, and clutched at Maggie’s hand. “Oh, shit, Maggie. We’re going to derail.”

“I knew this tour was a bad idea,” Maggie said, and clung to Winn’s hand as, beneath them, the monorail shuddered and screeched and then went airborne.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hold on to your butts.”
> 
> \-----
> 
> See end notes for content warnings.
> 
> AMAZING ART ALERT!

Being in a train derailment was very much like what Maggie had imagined it would be: The shudder as the train sped up beyond what it could tolerate, the sense of weightlessness as it came off the tracks, the teeth-rattling jolt as they hit the ground and just kept sliding. 

What she hadn’t expected was how quiet it was, right until the moment they smashed into something and tilted sideways. Or the quiet that followed, when it was all over. Or that everything smelled like spilled beer. 

She opened her eyes and saw a spider web of cracks in the shatterproof glass of the window alongside her seat. There was sunlight coming through it, but dappled, as if filtered through vegetation. She blinked once, and then turned, her neck aching with the movement, and saw Winn, his head still pressed to his knees, peering at her out of the corner of his eye.

She squeezed his hand, still tangled in her own, and felt him squeeze back. “You good?”

Winn nodded, and then swallowed hard enough that she could see his Adam’s apple contract. “That was very much not fun.” 

“No,” Maggie said. “It wasn’t.”

She heard a whimper from the seats behind her and slowly sat up. Her hair snagged on a cable dangling from the shattered ceiling, and she reached behind her to unsnag it, calling out, “Sam? Ruby? Talk to me.”

“We’re good,” Sam called out, and then Maggie heard a sob. “Shh, Ruby, sweetie. We’re all right.”

“Everyone move slow at first,” Maggie said. “Some of us could have injuries we don’t yet realize, and we don’t know how stable this —“

There was a creak, a groan, and then the monorail car shifted and slid three feet, leaving them all dangling from their seats at a precipitous angle. Maggie wondered how long it could rest like this before it dropped fully on its side.

“—thing is,” Maggie finished, and looked over at Winn, seeing her own fear reflected in his panicked gaze. “We need to get out of here,” she said, and Winn sat up, fumbling at the ring on his hand. 

“If I can get outside and see where we are,” Winn said, “I might be able to move the car to a safer location, or at least get rid of enough debris that you can all climb out safely.” 

“Go,” Maggie said, and then added, as Winn nearly fell out of his seat the instant he unbuckled his seatbelt, “but carefully.”

The car creaked and groaned as Winn, with Maggie holding on to his arm, clambered around the armrest that had been keeping him from falling to the other side of he car. As soon as he was out of the seat Maggie started to drop toward him, and he reached up, catching her and holding her steady while the car shifted and settled around them. 

“Can you get your belt?” he asked, and Maggie reached down, fumbling for the clasp. The belt was digging into her waist, the pressure of it rapidly escalating into a sharp, cutting pain that was making it hard to focus, but at last she was able to work her hand around and yank the clasp free. Winn caught her as she lurched forward, and with his help, she was able to climb down to stand alongside him. 

She reached up to grab her bag, which was wedged in the seat, and Winn said, “I’ve got it,” and snagged it, handing it over. He moved over to help Sam and Ruby, and Maggie draped the bag’s strap over her head and then reached down, feeling the comforting weight of the gun that was tucked inside. She hoped they wouldn’t need it, but without knowing when or if a rescue was on its way, it might be the only thing standing between them and reaching safety. 

“Mom, I’m bleeding,” Maggie heard, and turned to look at Ruby, who was still dangling from her seat, with Sam holding her up on one side and Winn the other. 

“It’s just a cut, Baby,” Sam soothed, and Maggie made her way to the first aid kit on the front wall of the car, pulling it open and haphazardly piling supplies into her bag. She kept out gauze, tape, and a bottle of disinfectant, all of which she handed over to Sam. 

“How bad is it?” Maggie asked, after Sam murmured her thanks for the supplies.

“Pretty sure it’s just a scratch,” Sam said, with a bit of motherly bravado, as she opened the disinfectant and began to dab it along Ruby’s forehead. Ruby whimpered, and Sam shushed her, talking to her quietly as she continued to clean the wound. 

Maggie looked around the darkened train car for an opening to the outside, but the door they had entered by was pancaked by debris, and nothing else obvious was presenting itself. They were, she thought, rather thoroughly fucked.

“So how do we get out of here?” she asked Winn, who had been engaged in the same futile search.

“Our best bet is through that window,” Winn said, pointing toward the fractured glass above them. “But I’m worried about what trying to break through will do to the stability of the car.”

“Leave that to me,” Maggie said, and pulled her weapon from her bag.

“Sawyer, you badass,” Winn said, and clapped her on the shoulder. He moved closer to Sam and Ruby and said, “Let me get a shield around us. I’ll wrap you in it the second you fire.”

Maggie watched as Winn held up his ring and, with a simple flick of his hand, created a shimmering gold barrier that surrounded the back half of the car. Maggie looked over at Winn, who nodded to signal his readiness, and then she raised the weapon and pointed it toward the glass. 

“Hold on to your butts,” she said, and fired. 

The glass came apart, and Maggie ducked her head as it rained down. But Winn’s shield slid into place, acting like an umbrella, and only two shards got through: one bouncing off her hand, the other plinking against her boot. 

“Not bad, Legion,” Maggie said, and Winn, with a cocky grin, slowly let the force field dissipate. Maggie pulled the gun’s holster from her bag and fastened it to her belt, then tucked the sidearm away. “Now to get up there and see if we can get some help.”

_Boom._

The sound reverberated through the car, rattling glass and plastic. The cables protruding from the broken ceiling panels swayed, like tentacles reaching down to grab them, and Maggie felt fear trickle straight down her spine. Along with it came a paradox of competing fight or flight responses: the desire to curl up in a ball and hide, and a desperate need to escape the train car fast. 

“Mom?” Ruby said, the word not quite a wail.

“Shh, Ruby,” Sam said, and ripped off a piece of medical tape with her teeth. She taped the bandage into place over Ruby’s forehead and then tucked the supplies into the purse slung over her shoulder. “We need to be quiet.”

“But what is —“ Ruby started to say, though the rest of her words were lost in —

_Boom._

Sam put her hand over Ruby’s mouth, and then turned to look at Winn and Maggie, her eyes wide with fear. She mouthed a single word.

_Giganotosaurus._

“Fuck,” Maggie breathed, and heard Winn muttering frantically under his breath. Maggie caught him by the arm and murmured, “Focus,” waiting for him to look at her and nod before she gestured that he should boost her toward the open window. He crouched and laced his fingers together, holding them flat so she could step onto his palms and then, with the help of the armrest of the seat above, climb up toward the window. There were shards of shattered glass still clinging to the frame, and she swept them aside with the sleeve of her denim jacket, clearing enough space that she could avoid cutting her palm to ribbons. She grabbed ahold then, feeling tiny prickles of lingering glass dig into her skin, and hoisted herself up so she could peer out.

The train was resting in a pile of broken branches and crushed vegetation, with thick trees all around. Their car had been near the back of the train, which probably had a lot to do with why they had survived the derailment, if the mangled cars further up the line were any indication. Most of them were resting in a clearing beyond the trees, though the front cars, crushed beyond recognition, had slammed into the wall of a nearby structure, spearing it like a missile. They’d cracked it entirely, leaving a gaping hole wide enough for the dinosaur inside it to break out.

And it —

_Boom._

— had broken out. 

Maggie felt the Giganotosaurus lunging toward her before her eyes even registered it. She ducked inside just as a row of teeth, all long and sharp as swords, crunched down and through what was left of the side of the car. She heard Ruby shriek, and Sam too, and Winn let out a cry as Maggie fell backward against him and they both slammed into the opposite row of seats. The train car jerked and twisted, knocking them around like they were trapped inside a washing machine, and Maggie, swearing, braced her arms against the headrest of one seat and the back of another. She fought against the blank wall of terror trying to envelop her mind, struggling to focus on something other than her primal fear of a creature from ages ago looking to turn them all into an afternoon snack.

The Giganotosaurus lifted its head, and the car, still partially caught in its teeth, lifted upward before falling free with a bone-rattling thud. Ruby fell into the gap between two seats and Sam, with a cry, jumped down to help her. The Giganotosaurus must have registered the movement, for it drove its snout deep into the car, its jaws opening wide. 

“No!” Winn shouted, and a force field erupted, covering them all. The Giganotosaurus’s teeth sizzled like a live wire when they made contact, and Maggie looked up and saw an eye peering down at her. Its golden brown iris, easily the diameter of a small table, contracted as it caught sight of her, and Maggie felt fear coil in her guts while words, clamoring and incoherent, gibbered through her mind. 

_No not like this no no run safe Alex no_

“I can’t hold it much longer!” Winn cried out, and just then, the dinosaur, frustrated, lifted its head and bellowed. The sound generated a shock wave that blasted into them like a freight train, and Maggie recoiled, her body making a reflexive attempt to protect itself from the battering noise. Panic made it hard to breathe, and she sucked in air, trying to find some way to slow down her racing heart so she could think. There was a way out of this, if only she could think.

The dinosaur lowered its snout, slamming into the train car like a battering ram, and Maggie heard metal shriek and tear free. The car rolled, and they all rolled with it, tumbling against each other and the seats as the car tore free from the rest of the train. Maggie felt herself hurtling through the air, and the next thing she knew she was face down on a patch of dirt, her body stunned by the sudden impact. 

She looked up, her brain still sluggish, and saw the train car a few feet away, completely upside down, and the gaping hole of the open window that she had been thrown through when it landed. Sam was crouched outside, reaching her arm in while crooning, “That’s it, Ruby. Come on, Baby.”

Maggie looked past the train then to the Giganotosaurus, which was a greenish silver in color, and as tall as the tallest of the surrounding trees. Its snout was lifted like it was scenting the wind, and then it cocked its head to the side, as if listening for something. 

And then Maggie heard it too: The sound of a car, approaching fast. 

She crawled forward until she was beside Sam, who was dragging Ruby through the broken window. “We need to move,” she hissed, and Sam, nodding, pulled Ruby into a tight hug.

“Winn is still inside,” Sam said, and Maggie peered into the dim, shattered remnants of the train car. 

“Okay, go,” Maggie murmured. “And stay low.” 

She waited for Sam and Ruby to crawl on hands and knees toward the shelter of some broken branches, then eased her head inside the car. “Winn? You good?”

“My foot’s stuck,” Winn said, and Maggie reached out her arm in the vain hope that she could pull him free.

The Giganotosaurus lowered its head to nudge the far side of the train car, and Maggie scrabbled backward as it skidded across the ground, nearly smashing into her. She dove for a nearby patch of undergrowth, somersaulting forward and covering her head as the train car tipped and threatened to fall on top of her. There was a shout from within as it started to split in half, and Winn came flying out of the window, scuttling frantically to get out of the way as the Giganotosaurus dug its teeth into metal and lifted upward. It waved the car back and forth between its jaws, shaking its prey into submission.

“Oh wow oh wow oh wow,” Winn exclaimed as Maggie grabbed his arm and dragged him deeper into sheltering tangle of brush and downed trees. They found Sam and Ruby crouched several yards away, both shaken and frazzled by otherwise okay. Sam, Maggie realized, had one hand planted firmly over Ruby’s mouth.

“This would be a great time for you to turn Kryptonian again,” Maggie hissed, and Sam, wide eyed, just nodded. 

The car noise was growing louder, and Maggie turned to see, through the trees behind them, a hint of blacktop, and past it, the struts for the elevated monorail tracks. “That car is coming down that road behind us.”

“It’s the maintenance road,” Sam said, though her gaze was still frozen, in blank horror, on the dinosaur feasting on the shattered train. “Someone on staff must know about the derailment.” 

“If we can get to that car fast enough, I can hold the dinosaur off with my ring,” Winn said, and Maggie nodded that they should try. 

It was a slow, laborious crawl at first, and Maggie’s bruised, bloody knee had her worried that she wouldn’t be able to stay upright when she got to her feet. But adrenaline is a marvelous thing, and when Winn, behind her, said, “Oh no, it’s spotted us,” Maggie found that she was able to run just fine. She weaved her way through the trees, keeping pace with Sam and Ruby, while behind them, Winn threw up periodic force fields to slow the charging dinosaur. Maggie heard trees snapping like matchsticks, and felt the ground rattle like there was an earthquake. But she kept her eyes on the ground in front of her, determined to not look back.

Sam and Ruby broke through the trees first, and Maggie, pulling up, saw a jeep, with Carlos at the wheel, barreling down the road. It was still a few hundred yards off, and Sam and Ruby waved their arms and started running toward it. 

“Run run run faster faster!” Winn shrieked as he broke through the trees, and Maggie took off in a sprint, catching at Ruby with one hand when she stumbled and nearly took Sam down with her. Between the two of them they got the girl to the jeep just as Carlos pulled to a stop. 

“Go now move move!” he shouted, with a cadence that made Maggie suspect she had someone with military experience on her hands. He reached out to help pull Ruby into the front seat, and then, as Sam climbed in the back, shouted to Maggie: “¡Cúbrenos!” 

He lifted a weapon from between the front seats, and Maggie, snatching it from his hands, climbed up so she was sitting sideways with one leg dangling off the back of the jeep. She braced herself on the roll bar and aimed the weapon, firing one round straight at the dinosaur’s eye as Winn, panting and exhausted, clambered into the back seat. 

“Go!” Winn screamed, and Carlos floored the jeep. Maggie lurched and nearly slipped from her perch, but Sam caught her around the waist, holding her steady as the Giganotosaurus lunged toward the vehicle.

Maggie didn’t think, couldn’t think; knew she would die if she bothered to think. She simply reacted, as she was trained to do: chambered the shell, aimed for the back of the monster’s throat, fired. 

The dinosaur let out a roar of rage as Maggie peppered its soft tissue with buckshot, and between that and Winn throwing up a final force field, it bought enough time for Carlos to get the jeep up to speed and out of range. Maggie caught one last glimpse of the angry beast, its skin glinting in the sunlight, before a curve in the road hid it from view.

“Come visit my island paradise,” she said, and heard Sam, still holding on to her, let out a peal of hysterical laughter. “Have some drinks, see some dinosaurs, it’ll be fun!”

“I would like to go back to the 31st century now,” Winn mumbled, and Maggie reached back to pat him on the head.

“You’re a good egg, Winn,” she said, and Winn, beaming, punched her on the shoulder.

The Giganotosaurus bellowed once more, then fell silent.

The jeep continued to speed away. 

\----------

_Breathe._

That was all Alex could do, in the darkness, while the seconds ticked down. Wait for the men who were coming to kill Lena, to kill her, and breathe.

They didn’t have much in the way of weapons, other than an old revolver that Lena kept in a drawer. It gave them six shots at most, and so Alex had handed it to Lena, saying, “Don’t use it unless you have no other choice. Firing will give your position away.”

For herself, she’d opted for different weapons: a set of scalpels, a heavy flashlight that could be used as a club, and darkness. 

She was trained for this. She knew how to do this. But not knowing where Maggie was or if another group of mercenaries might be hunting her down as well added an extra frisson of terror to what had, without warning, turned into a mission. Alex just wanted to get to a place where she had cell signal and tell Maggie to hole up someplace safe. 

But first, she needed to teach these jackasses a lesson.

Lena had done everything she could to slow them down. The lab was darkened save for its emergency lights, and the elevators were locked down. She could have enabled the door locks that were an emergency containment measure as well, but that would have left them both trapped inside for a minimum of 48 hours. 

“I’d rather take our chances,” Alex had said, and Lena had agreed. So now she was stationed in the back corner of the lab with a pistol and an iPad, preparing to wreak some chaos remotely, while Alex hovered near the stairwell entrance, waiting for these jerks to ask her to dance.

She was looking forward to it, if she was being honest.

The door cracked open and four commandos slipped through, two flanking left, two right. Alex let out a sigh of relief, for she had been worried they might go with gas first, and the lab’s standard issue goggles and masks would have afforded limited protection. Her other big worry — night vision goggles — also did not appear to be a factor, which made the shadows her friend. She intended to use them to her full advantage.

The squad leader waved two of his men forward, and then gestured for another pair of commandos to come inside and take flanking position along the lab’s walls. By Alex’s count, that left two men on the stairwell, and probably another two holding position upstairs. She could understand the reluctance to engage their full force; odds were they thought there were at most a few scientists at the lab, if anyone at all. They certainly weren’t prepared for the head of the goddamn DEO.

_Surprise, assholes,_ Alex thought, and crept forward as the men advanced, timing her footfalls so that their steps and hers hit the floor at the exact same time. She was waiting for them to spread out so that she could begin to pick them off one by one. It would help if —

The sound system suddenly crackled to life, and Pavarotti burst out over the speakers, his piercing, passionate voice hitting a dramatic high note. The mercenaries looked around, startled, and in the time it took for them to regroup, Alex darted forward and dispatched the nearest man with a quick scalpel to the jugular. She lowered him to the floor, silently, and tucked his sidearm into the back of her jeans, then crept into hiding behind an Ultraclave station. The music cut out abruptly, and it was only then, as silence descended, that the squad leader realized that one of his men had gone missing. 

“Jenkins, sound off,” ordered the squad leader, and then, when there was no reply, added, “Team four, move up.”

Two more commandos emerged from the stairwell, confirming for Alex that the final pair was upstairs guarding the entrances. She doubted there was a second chopper loaded with reinforcements waiting to move in if the first group failed. These men thought they were going after an easy target, and they’d planned accordingly.

They were in for a surprise. 

The digital monitors on the far end of the room suddenly flared into life, each one playing a different TV show at full volume. Alex used the distraction to creep forward and hamstring a second commando. He let out a curse as he dropped and Alex, wrapping an arm around his neck, put him in a chokehold until he passed out. She liberated a knife from this one, as well as a second handgun. Sooner or later she would snag a rifle, but at the moment, stealth was still her greatest weapon, and —

She heard a screech, and froze. Claws clattered on the tile floor, skittering and scrabbling, and the mercenaries, panicked at first, slipped into uneasy laughter.

“Just a cat,” said the leader. “Keep moving, and —“

A raging cacophony of drums and guitar shrieked through the speakers, and Alex, even knowing it was coming, cringed at the sudden noise. She crept forward under its cover, taking down one commando with a knife to the ribs, the other with an elbow to the face followed by a knee to the groin. She took a chance and fired a shot at the squad leader, and it was only then that panic got to the remaining men and they opened fire.

Alex dove over a table, taking out an electron microscope that was probably worth more than she’d spent on her entire education, and scrabbled forward on hands and knees while, above her, glass and plastic shattered in a hail of bullets. She slid to a stop with her back to a stainless steel cabinet, perhaps thirty yards from where Lena was holed up, and gave Lena a thumbs down. Lena, smirking, cut off the noise. 

There was a clatter of shell casings hitting the tile floor, followed by a groan from one of the men she’d downed. Someone put a fresh clip into a rifle, and then someone else did too. And then a door opened, and Alex heard the reserve men enter the room. 

_That leaves six,_ Alex thought, and checked the clip on the gun she’d appropriated. It had nine rounds, which meant she didn’t have a lot of room for error. She slapped it back into place and then looked over at Lena, nodding.

“Hello, boys,” Lena cooed, and her voice, reverberating through the speakers, echoed eerily in the lab’s open space. Alex couldn’t help but grin when Lena laid it on thick with a coquettish, “I’m not very happy about what you’ve done to my lab.”

“Then surrender,” the squad leader replied, from just a few feet off Alex’s left shoulder. “We’re not here to hurt you. We only want what you’ve got in that safe.”

Alex saw Lena’s face shift, her expression transitioning from cool confidence to shock and then, in an instant, to unmitigated rage. There was only one person, in Alex’s experience, who could make Lena that angry. And his name was Lex Luthor. 

Alex watched Lena swallow it down: her posture straighten, her features smooth back into a determined calm. And then she said, in a scathing yet somehow seductive voice: “I’d be happy to show it to you. But first, you have to listen to this song.”

A piano glissando burst through the speakers, followed, a beat later, by two female voices crooning a familiar melody in union. The lights began to strobe like it was a disco at two a.m., and Alex, grinning, crept forward until she was close enough to see the commandos sweating, and smell it, too. She watched and waited, letting them simmer in their fear and uncertainty, until, with a flourish of piano, go time came. 

_You are the dancing queen  
Young and sweet only seventeen_

She burst from behind her cover, running at a full tilt toward the first of the six. The one nearest her left raised his rifle, but she shot him with the gun in her left hand without looking while, with her right, she drove the knife straight into the throat of the man directly in front of her. 

_Dancing queen  
Feel the beat from the tambourine  
Oh yeah_

He fell, twisting, and as he did, she grabbed hold of his rifle and fired off several rounds at the commando to her right. His rifle tipped upward as he fell, and several rounds went straight into the ceiling, setting off the sprinklers. The fire alarm went off, and water began to pour down, as Alex, with the last second she had a good grasp on the rifle, fired a controlled burst at the next man still standing.

_You can dance  
You can jive  
Having the time of your life_

Three rifles went off as one, and Alex dove under a table, sliding between its legs and rolling. She fired from beneath it, kneecapping two of the men before another round of return fire shattered the collection of glass beakers on its surface and she had to scramble for cover. 

_Ooh, see that girl_  
_Watch that scene_  
_Dig it’s the dancing queen_  


The last commando standing, the squad leader, advanced on Alex’s position, laying down a suppressing fire. He had her pinned down, she realized, and she only had one bullet left.

“You think you can do that to me, you bitch?” he screamed over the sound of his rifle and the pounding bass.

“No, but I can,” Lena said, and emptied her revolver.

The squad leader’s face exploded into a bloody pulp, and he dropped, his rifle letting off several more rounds into the far wall as his hand contracted and then went limp. The rifle clattered to the floor beside him, just as the Abba song swung into its final refrain. 

Alex sucked in a breath and looked over at Lena, who was standing a few feet away, the empty gun still in her hands. She lowered it, and Alex put a hand out, gesturing for her to stay back. Then she slid out from behind the cabinet where she had taken shelter, raised her gun, and walked over to check on the men that she had taken down.

The squad leader was dead, as were three of the others. The ones she had kneecapped were both alive, though one was unconscious. The other fumbled for his sidearm as she approached, but when she aimed her weapon straight at his head, he dropped his hand to the ground. 

“I won’t resist,” he said, his face covered in sweat from pain and fear. “Just, please, get me to a medic.” 

“I’m a doctor,” Alex said, and saw the man let out a sigh of relief. “I’ll patch you up before you bleed out. But first, tell me why you’re here.”

“I only know what I was briefed,” the man said, and then looked up in fear as Lena, still holding the revolver, picked her way through the shattered glass and equipment. “We were supposed to come down here, breach a vault, and get something from it.”

“And kill anyone who might be in the way?” Lena asked. In her voice, Alex heard rage. 

“We didn’t think anyone would be here until we saw the vehicle outside.” The man tried to straighten his leg and then groaned, panting. “Please, please, just…I can feel how much I’m bleeding.”

Alex crouched and did a quick survey of the wound, verifying that the bleeding was not, in fact, life threatening. “You’re not going to die,” she said to the man, and then added, with a wry half smile, “and if you tell me who sent you, I’ll find you some morphine.”

“Was it Lex Luthor?” Lena asked, and the man looked at her again and gasped, his eyes widening in recognition.

“You’re her,” he babbled, raising his hands in supplication. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. We were supposed to capture you, if we found you. Mr. Luthor said you weren’t to be harmed.”

“That bastard,” Lena said, and there was a chill in her voice that reminded Alex, quite uncomfortably, of Lillian. 

Alex pushed to her feet and gestured for Lena to follow. Their feet crunched on broken glass as they took several steps, far enough away that, Alex reckoned, the commandos wouldn’t be able to hear. “I need to perform some basic field care on the wounded, and then we need to move.” 

“We can put them in lockdown here, which leaves them on a hold for 48 hours,” Lena said. “That should give us enough time to deal with whatever Lex is cooking up.” 

“The only issue is the helicopter upstairs,” Alex warned, her stomach clenching at the nightmare scenario of a Blackhawk’s guns turned on them the second they walked out the door. “The pilot might have dusted off already, or he might still be up there, waiting for us.” 

“I can check use the cameras to check, and also try to get in touch with my people on other parts of the island. We don’t know what else he might have tried to do.” Alex flinched at that, because Maggie was out there somewhere, with Winn and Sam and Ruby. They had Winn’s Legion ring and Maggie’s street smarts, but even that might not be a match for a squad of well-armed mercenaries. 

“They’ll be okay,” Lena said, in recognition of what was going through Alex’s mind. “Carlos is with them, and he used to be Delta Force.”

“You do like to hire the best,” Alex said, and Lena grinned.

The man on the ground in front of her groaned again, and Alex knelt down next to him, methodically stripping all his weapons away. “Just relax and breathe. I promised you morphine, and I intend to honor that.” 

She did, though it took longer than she had intended. She spent fifteen minutes patching the worst of the wounds on the five men who had survived, as well as the bullet graze she hadn’t even known was on her right arm. Lena, meanwhile, had gathered enough food and water for two days, and spent the rest of the time trying, unsuccessfully, to get through to both Carlos and the mainland. 

“Something is blocking the signal,” she said, and then gestured at the watch on her wrist. “All the signal.”

“Mine too,” Alex said, and then pushed the button on her Super signal one more time, in the vain hope that maybe Kara would suddenly show up. But her sister was apparently unable to get the message, and so Alex collected two rifles and some extra magazines, plus clips for the handguns she had already appropriated, and then headed for the stairwell. She opened the door, and Jonesy skittered through and straight up the steps.

“I wouldn’t want to stay down here either,” Lena said, accepting one of the handguns that Alex had appropriated. She closed the door and then pushed a button on her phone, and seconds later, a steel door rolled down from the ceiling, locking the commandos inside.

They made their way to the Range Rover, still wary of the chopper that might be hovering at a distance, intending to take them out once they got underway. But it was apparently long gone, and Lena was peeling out of the parking lot before Alex even had her seatbelt on. 

“Once we get away from here, we might be able to get some signal,” Alex said, bracing her hand against the dashboard as Lena slewed through a fast turn. “If we can get in touch with Winn, I’m sure he can break through whatever Lex is doing to jam communications.”

“My question is, what is Lex doing, period.” Lena pushed the car up to 80, steering the car with a fixed determination toward the bridge they had crossed a little over an hour before. “He sent his mercenaries to retrieve the device, but you know he has more people here. So where are they?”

“Commandeering Downtown Jurassic, most likely,” Alex said. “He’d want a base of operations, and if he came in by boat, which…” She trailed off, remembering an offhand comment Maggie had made as they’d showered together before breakfast. “There was a yacht off in the distance this morning. Maggie saw it when she was out on our balcony, before I woke up.” 

“Was it black?” Lena asked, her gaze turning murderous when Alex nodded. “Every time I think I’m free of him, that bastard finds a new way to ruin my life.”

“He’s getting on my last nerve, too,” Alex said, and pulled her phone out of her back pocket just as they started cross the bridge. “Maybe now we can get some signal,” she said, but Maggie’s call went straight to voicemail, and once again, her Super signal did not light up, even when she rolled down the window and stuck her arm outside. “I would really like to know how he’s jamming us so thoroughly.” 

“He’s probably commandeered my satellite,” Lena said as they cleared the bridge and were swallowed up by vegetation once again. 

“Then we’ll just have to commandeer it back,” Alex said, and loaded a full clip into her handgun. She tucked the spare into the front pocket of her backpack, and turned toward Lena. “Do you think —“

Her eye registered the Triceratops running straight toward the Range Rover a second before it hit. 

And then they were flying toward the jungle, and the world went black.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I think we’re being hunted.”
> 
> \-----
> 
> See end of chapter for content warnings.

Alex woke to a long, low whistle, sliding upward at the end. The thin, high-pitched sound repeated once, then again, like the incessant question of a small child. 

There was silence, and then it happened again, only this time accompanied by other, differently pitched sounds. Strange, Alex thought, that Maggie would change the alarm clock to birdsong. It really wasn’t her style, and —

“Alex,” she heard, from to her left. It was a woman’s voice, but not Maggie’s; a low, desperate whisper. “Alex, please wake up.”

“What…” Alex reached up to rub her forehead, and felt something thick and wet smear across her face. She opened her eyes and looked at her hand, seeing blood streaked across her palm. She was, she realized, sitting in car with vegetation all around, and beyond it, dappled sunlight. 

And there was a broken tree branch speared through the windshield.

She turned her head to look over at Lena, because she was in the car with Lena, and Lena had been driving when something — _a Triceratops,_ she remembered with sudden clarity — had T-boned them. And Lena was still there, in the driver’s seat, staring up at the splintered tree branch not six inches from her face as if she feared that looking away from it might make it fall. 

“You okay?” Alex asked, and Lena nodded once.

“I used your knife to deflate the airbags,” Lena said, and Alex looked down to see the passenger side airbag draped over her legs like a popped balloon. “But I can’t get my door open, and that —“ Lena gasped in a breath, her voice shallow, and Alex realized she was dangerously close to hyperventilating. “That could fall all the way through if I try to move.”

“Okay,” Alex said, and quickly assessed her own condition. The bullet graze on her right arm was bleeding again, and badly enough that it accounted for the blood on her palm. She felt achy and sore, as would be normal after a high-speed collision, and she’d been unconscious for a time, which probably meant she had a mild concussion. But she could still think, and years of training kicked in, allowing her to push away the fog and downshift into survival mode. 

“Let’s just…” She wiped the blood off her hand, as best she could, against her jeans. “Let’s take this one step at a time.” 

She fumbled for the button to unfasten her seat belt, but her hands were unsteady, and it took multiple tries to get it to release. It came loose at last, coiling back into its retractor with a hiss that sounded far too loud in the tense silence of the broken car. Alex reached for the door handle next and pulled it toward her, hearing the hard click of the mechanism releasing. It was followed by the groan of the car shifting. The tree branch slid forward another inch, and Lena, flinching, let out a whimper.

“You’re okay,” Alex said, and reached for Lena’s arm, feeling it tremble beneath her fingers. She held on until Lena calmed, and then said, “It’s going to be okay.”

Lena let out a disbelieving laugh. “You’ve never struck me as a magical thinker.”

“You’d be surprised how often it’s an asset in my profession.” Alex slowly pushed on the passenger side door, but it stalled against what she presumed must be another fallen tree limb. The only way out, it seemed, was through the passenger window or the windshield itself.

“I’m going to have to crawl out the window,” Alex said, and Lena made a small noise of agreement. Alex turned and reached for Lena’s hand, and Lena clutched on to it in desperation. 

“It’s going to be okay, Lena,” Alex said. “Say it with me.”

“It’s going to be okay,” Lena said, her voice quavering, and Alex squeezed her hand one last time, in reassurance. Then she set about the tricky work of trying to get out without turning those words into a lie.

Crawling out of a car with her legs under the dashboard and vegetation swarmed up against the side of the vehicle like it was trying to get inside was tricky, and knowing that one false move could leave Lena impaled on a tree branch the size of a fence post did not help matters. But the tree trunk against the door was, at least, stable enough that Alex could use it for leverage, and all those push ups and chin ups showed their value in the way she was able to haul herself out and, at last, drop into a crouch and reach in to pull the rifles free.

And then she felt that trickle up her spine that told her that something was watching.

J’onn called it a sixth sense, and it was. But it was also the way the jungle went silent; how the birds, so noisy and social, stopped tweeting in the space of an eye blink. It was in the way the air seemed to hum with electricity, and the way her heart clenched for no reason. Alex wondered, not for the first time, if this was what it was like to be Kara Zor-El; to feel everything, hear everything, and know, in her bones, that something was coming and only she could stop it.

“Lena,” Alex said, as softly as she could. “I think we’re being hunted.”

“Oh,” Lena whispered, and Alex could see her tremble, like a ripple across her body, and then settle back into that soft leather seat. “Alex, what should we do?”

“I have the rifles,” Alex said softly, and flipped off the safety on the one in her hands. “But I don’t know if it will be enough.”

“Then I’ll have to use this.” Lena fumbled at her pocket, and Alex remembered then that Lena had tucked the alien device into her perfectly tailored dark blue Capri pants. Its power was there, waiting to be harnessed, if only she dared.

“Lena…” Alex said, and felt an existential dread well up in her, as she remembered what it was to be swallowed up in the primal emotions of a cat whose life consisted of chasing small rodents and sleeping. What Lena was about to attempt was far more dangerous; she was about to try to take control of an animal that was totally wild, and that looked upon humans not as predators, but prey.

“I can do this,” Lena said, and then whispered, like a personal affirmation, “I have to do this.” 

She lifted the alien device to her temple, and it latched on, and she arched like an electric current had just gone through her spine.

What happened next was something that, if they hadn’t been in mortal danger, Alex would have watched with clinical fascination. As it was, seeing Lena connect and then grapple with the wave of emotions that hit her as she merged with the dinosaur that had them in its sights was like watching a newborn try to walk for the first time. She twitched and fought at first, before succumbing, and then a feline grace seemed to take hold, and Alex knew then that she was locked in mind meld with a predator as fierce as any that the Earth, or any other planet, had produced.

“Raptor,” Lena hissed, and Alex’s spine prickled as the word passed Lena’s lips, because raptors hunted in packs, and one meant three, if not more. “Hunt hunt want taste smell blood meat now.”

Alex shifted to look out at the jungle, her finger on the trigger, her whole body on alert, as Lena, inside the car, rambled and twitched. It reminded Alex of Gollum in the _Lord of the Rings_ movies, always craving that one thing he could not have, and Alex saw, from the corner of her eye, that Lena had grasped on to the wheel as if it was that long sought for ring. She clung to it so hard that her skin went taught with the strain, and Alex felt a wave of gratitude that the car’s engine had killed in the crash, rendering the wheels immobile to any force save gravity. 

“Lena,” Alex murmured, as she held the rifle steady, her body poised to react at the slightest movement. “Direct them off our path, Lena. Send them north if you can.”

And Lena shuddered, and sighed, and let out a breath, before quietly whispering, “North. Back toward your hunting grounds. Go.”

She twitched then, and seemed to deflate, and then, very slowly, opened her eyes. She reached up to touch the device, and it fell away from her like a leech that had taken its fill. 

“They’re going,” she said, after a long moment, and then, with a deep, tremulous exhale, “They’re gone.”

Alex looked around the jungle, her eyes searching for any sign that the raptors might still be there, waiting to pounce. But there was nothing, and as she crouched there, listening, she heard the birds start to sing again.

“You did it,” she said, and Lena let out a laugh as terror released, as it so often did, in joy. “Lena, Kara would be so proud of you.”

“I wish Kara would show up and say that herself,” Lena said, the strain of the last several minutes heavy on her face. “And I really wish she would show up and get this log out of my face.”

“I wish she would, too,” Alex said, casting a wistful glance toward the sky. But Kara wasn’t going to magically appear, no matter how much Alex hoped that she would, and so, instead, Alex crept around the front of the shattered Range Rover until she’d reached the driver’s side door. Lena, unfortunately, had never opened her window, and even if she had, pulling her through with the steering wheel in the way was likely impossible. Which meant the only way to get Lena out was to open the door and hope that, in the process, that tree branch didn’t pulverize her. 

Alex started by setting both rifles aside, though it left her feeling naked to do so. She took a hard look around the jungle, watching for any sign of movement, and then reached for the door handle, lifting it upward. The lock caught, grinding against something, and she worked the handle, once, twice, until finally it popped free. She heard a tearing noise, and Lena let out a panicked cry as the branch slipped another two inches. But it held, and Alex, her heart rocketing against her chest like she was the one in the driver’s seat, inched the door open.

“Slow,” she murmured, as Lena fumbled to release her seatbelt. “So slow, Lena. Go so slow.” 

Lena, her breathing high pitched and desperate, clawed the belt free from its clasp. Alex caught it as it retracted, gingerly feeding it back until it was taut, and then reached for Lena’s arm. 

“Now you,” Alex said, and Lena acknowledged the words with the slightest of nods. “One inch at a time.” 

Lena slid toward the open door, and the stump shifted. Slid a bit more, and it shifted again. Shifted her eyes to look at Alex, who reach up to grasp her around the waist, and said, “Okay, I think this one we do fast.” 

She counted to three, and Lena dove toward the open door with every bit of leverage she had. Alex dragged her free of the car just as the branch, breaking through the last bit of safety glass holding it in place, speared through the driver’s seat headrest. Lena turned to look at it, and then at Alex, and let out a sob of relief. 

“You’re good, you’re good,” Alex murmured, and wrapped an arm around Lena, waiting for her to calm. She gave Lena a moment to recover, even though she felt that prickle again along her spine, that quiet insistence that they move, and soon, before they became a target again. 

“You’re bleeding,” Lena said in sudden realization, and lifted her head to look at Alex’s arm. “Alex, we have to get that bandaged before the scent attracts more predators.”

They sat up, and Alex pulled off her plaid shirt. With Lena’s help, she tore off a strip and wrapped it around her bicep. She checked Lena for injuries next, finding a bruise on her temple and a nasty cut on her thigh. 

“This is going to hurt,” she warned as she wrapped the rest of the shirt around Lena’s thigh and pulled it as tight as Lena could bear. “Do you think you can walk on it?”

“Not much choice, is there?” Lena said, and Alex mustered a faint smile.

“Kara,” she said, “would be very proud of you,” and saw Lena grow suddenly shy at the praise. 

“She would be proud of you, too, and so would Maggie,” Lena said, and Alex felt her skin warm at the thought. She couldn’t wait to sit down with Maggie over a couple of beers and recount her adventures, and then listen as her wife, with animated hand gestures and a dimpled smile, related a few lightly embellished tales of how she too had fought off dinosaurs or kicked commando ass. Alex ached for the chance to bullshit about their escapades, and then make love, and then crawl into bed together and sleep until they were whole again.

But that was hours and miles away, and before that, most likely, they would both have to endure a few more adventures. 

“Can you walk?” Alex asked, and Lena, grimacing, let Alex pull her to her feet. She took a tentative step, then another, and then clutched at Alex’s arm. 

“I can do it,” Lena said, “though I might need a little help.”

“You’ve got it,” Alex replied, and Lena held on to her as, together, they set off down the road, headed for the safe haven of Downtown Jurassic and, Alex hoped, a reunion with Maggie and the rest of her friends.

And whether dinosaur or megalomaniac, God help anyone who stood in their way.

\----------

“Dammit!” 

Winn ripped off the headset and threw it across the workstation, which was so thickly coated with dust that it and the nineties-era computer equipment on it were barely recognizable. Winn, however, was working on a brand new laptop, which Lena’s team had stashed, along with other useful supplies, in this broken-down remnant of the original Jurassic Park. 

“It’s an emergency supply depot,” Carlos had said when they had pulled up to it about 20 minutes after their escape from the Giganotosaurus. “Boss doesn’t know that we have it, but I made sure there were several all over the island, just in case.”

“You’re not just a driver and tour conductor, are you?” Maggie had asked, after watching Carlos do a quick perimeter recon and then usher them all safely inside.

“I did two tours in Afghanistan,” Carlos said. “Took this job after my discharge because my Mamá is getting older and needs extra help. She lives in Cartago.”

And Maggie felt profoundly grateful to that elderly lady who had convinced her son to take this gig, for Carlos had stashed enough food and water to last weeks, plus medical supplies so they could patch up their scrapes and cuts. There was also enough weaponry to hold off an army of dinosaurs. Maggie feared they might need it, if Winn’s inability to get on the island’s communication grid was any indication. 

“Do you know what’s blocking it?” Maggie asked. She finished pressing a bandage to an oozing scrape on her shoulder, and then walked over to stand beside Winn. 

“It’s some sort of jamming signal.” Winn’s fingers danced over the keyboard with the speed and dexterity of a virtuoso piano player, and Maggie felt a wave of nostalgia for all those times when he’d been the one figuring out how to get the team out of a jam. He’d done it more times than she could count; she only hoped he’d be able to pull it off now.

“If I could just…ugh!” Winn scowled down at the screen, then turned to look up at Maggie. “Maybe I should just use my Legion ring to fly to Downtown Jurassic and get some help.”

“The question is if there is help to be had,” Sam said from the cot in the corner, where she was sitting with Ruby’s head in her lap. The teenager had been exhausted, not just from their escape, but from freaking out about it afterward, and everyone was more than a little relieved that she had finally settled down enough to take a nap. 

Sam eased out from beneath her daughter, soothing her with a few quiet words, before walking over to stand on Winn’s other side. “You said something is jamming not only the island’s internal communications, but cell phone signal, too. So nothing can get out.” 

Winn nodded. “Nothing at all. We might as well be in the Jurassic era, from an IT standpoint.”

“Which explains why the train derailed,” Sam said. “Everything on the island is automated, with a localized, secondary redundancy system if there is any lag from the L-Corp satellite in geosynchronous orbit.” 

Maggie squinted at Sam. “Hi, cop here. Translation please?”

“It means that someone is deliberately interfering with everything on this island,” Winn said, and pushed away from the computer terminal. He looked up at Maggie and said, “The Daxamites did something similar to us during the invasion.” 

“What idiot would bother to invade Jurassic World?” Maggie asked, and saw Sam make a face like she had just bitten into a lemon and was remembering, belatedly, why it was a bad idea. “Oh, of course. That idiot.”

“Yes, Lex is at it again,” Sam said with a weary sigh. “He’s been sniffing around this project ever since he escaped from prison. It’s part of why we asked Winn to come back and help us fortify our IT infrastructure.”

“Which I did a crap job of, because the whole thing is shot. Not just communications and transportation, but probably the fences holding the animals in place, too.” Winn lowered his head into his hands, but even with it hidden, Maggie could see the hangdog look on his face. “This is my fault. I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, bullshit,” Maggie said, and patted him on the head. “You’ll figure out a way, Winn, you always do. Just give it time.”

“But until then, is there anything else we can do?” Sam looked over at Carlos, who had just returned inside from filling up the jeep with gas and restocking its supplies. “Carlos, if we can’t get through to anyone, what are our next steps?”

“We could drive, or we could take the river cruise boat,” Carlos said. “Driving would be faster, but we’d have to go past the Giganotosaurus paddock again, and I think that puts us at too much risk. So instead, I’d drive us to the river cruise docks, and we’d take the boat down the river and hug the coastline until we reach Downtown Jurassic.” 

“But if Lex is trying to take over the island, wouldn’t that put us right in the middle of it?” Sam asked, and Carlos nodded.

“That is the risk, Miss Arias,” Carlos said, with a soldier’s professional detachment. “We move now, and we could be heading straight into a trap.”

“So the better play is to hole up here until Winn can get communications online,” Maggie said, and Winn frowned, his brow wrinkling in frustration. “There are enough supplies that we could sit safely for several days.”

“We’re good on food, yes, but the generator that’s keeping the computer charged only has enough fuel for 24 hours,” Carlos said. “And if the fences are down, then we might have to deal with another animal threat. On top of Giganotosaurus, there is an Allosaurus paddock not far from here. Plus, the inhibitors that keep the Pterosaurs from getting too close to any of the park’s exhibit areas may be down.”

“Meaning that we could have flying dinosaurs dropping from the sky.” Maggie shivered at the thought of one of the giant beasts she’d seen that morning swooping down and snatching one of them away. “So staying put and giving Winn time to work is Plan A. But in case that doesn’t work, someone should try to get through now.” 

Carlos nodded, and Maggie saw that he had been thinking along the same lines. She knew then what he was about to say, and cut him off before he could. “I’ll do it.”

“Maggie, no,” Sam said, shaking her head, while Winn gulped and sped up his typing. “It’s too dangerous. You can’t go by yourself.” 

“I’m not exactly looking forward to it,” Maggie said, giving her a wry look. “But who else is there? Winn has to work on the computers, you need to be with Ruby, and if we need to evacuate this position, then Carlos is the only person who can get to the boat and pilot it safely.”

“But Maggie,” Winn said, and then, when she looked at him, “Maggie, there are _dinosaurs out there.”_ He hissed the last few words, almost as if he was afraid that the dinosaurs might hear them. Or worse, Ruby.

“I’ve survived Daxamites and a crazed Kryptonian death cult and Agent Liberty’s bully boys and being married to Alex Freaking Danvers,” Maggie said, and saw Sam wince at the Kryptonian part. “I think I can handle a few Jurassic era predators.” 

“Thank you for not saying Reign,” Sam murmured.

“Reign was a symptom, and the illness is gone.” Maggie turned her attention back to Winn, who was giving her a hangdog look the likes of which she hadn’t seen since that time she’d arrested him for stealing a Van Gogh. “You know I’m right. And if something goes wrong here, your Legion ring is the backup plan.”

“I know, but Alex will murder me with her index finger if something happens to you.” Winn looked over at Carlos. “Is there anything else we could try?”

Carlos looked around the supply station for a moment, seemingly assessing everything at their disposal, and then shrugged. “We sit here until something notices us and eats us.” 

Sam shuddered at that, and Winn let out a little yelp and started pounding keys again. Maggie patted him on the shoulder and then walked over to Carlos, speaking to him in a low voice. “Tell me what I’m facing.”

“The biggest problem is getting over the gorge,” Carlos said. “If you were driving, you could just take the bridge further downriver, but since that would risk crossing the Giganotosaurus path, you’re better off walking across the old bridge and then getting an ATV from the supply depot two miles further down the road. Only thing is, that bridge is not in great shape.”

“Not in great shape like it’s in need of a few repairs, or like one wrong step and I’m on a one way trip to the bottom of the gorge?” Maggie asked, and felt her stomach curdle when Carlos, once again, shrugged.

“I’d want to be across before it gets dark,” Carlos said, and then glanced at his watch. “Which means you need to move.”

Maggie nodded. “I need gear, and a map, and…” She looked up at Carlos, squinting. “You wouldn’t happen to have a bottle of Scotch stashed somewhere, would you?”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Whoosh._
> 
> \------
> 
> See end notes for content warnings.

Maggie had done her fair share of roughing it in her lifetime. She’d camped plenty as a child, and had backpacked across Europe the summer before she graduated from college. She’d climbed mountains and hiked 200-level trails and undergone DEO survival training three times. She’d never be at the same level as Alex, but she could keep up. 

But walking across Isla Nublar with hundreds of dinosaurs on the loose, and probably some mercenaries too, was high on the list of survival adventures she never wanted to experience again.

For one thing, it was hot, and the goddamn mosquitoes only got worse as the sun sank in the sky. Maggie’s denim jacket was keeping them off her arms and shoulders, at least, but they still were feasting regularly on her neck and hands. On top of that, the fading light meant the smaller animals were more willing to come out from behind the cover of the forest and onto the surface of the battered asphalt road she was following. It forced her to go more slowly, because she needed to keep a watchful eye, not just for the cracks and potholes left behind after nearly thirty years of neglect, but also for dinosaurs that perceived her as invading their territory.

“Just keep moving steady,” had been Carlos’s advice. “Don’t run if they follow you, and don’t stop if they try to bar your way.”

“And if I see a raptor?” Maggie asked, remembering how they had been by far the most dangerous creatures in the books she had read as a teenager.

“Then it’s probably already too late,” Carlos had said, in a matter-of-fact way that was anything but comforting. “But their paddock is on the other side of the gorge, so I’m hoping you won’t have to worry about them until after you cross.” 

And now, after about 45 minutes of walking, that time had arrived.

Maggie’s first clue was when the road began to widen; the second was when it transitioned from asphalt alone to asphalt with a concrete foundation. She climbed a slight incline, clearing the cover of the trees, and saw the gorge spread out in front of her. Sunset tinged the waterfall to her left a golden pink, while to her right, the near side of the gorge was in shadow, while the far side was painted in shades of orange and red. She turned and saw, over her right shoulder, that the sky was a blazing orange. If she could see all the way to the ocean, she was fairly sure that she would have an incredible view of the sun dipping below the waves. 

It was a breathtaking sight, and Maggie wished that Alex could be standing alongside her, holding her hand as they witnessed it together. But Alex was out there somewhere with Lena, and the only way that Maggie was going to find them or get help for the rest of her friends was if she crossed this bridge.

This dilapidated, beat to fucking shit bridge. 

It had been beautiful once, with white cables that angled upward toward two focal points. Each supported a triangulated arch that kept the bridge aloft above the deep gorge. But now the cables were frayed, and there were gaps in the roadway through which Maggie could see a yawning emptiness. She couldn’t help but wonder if her weight, slight as it was, would cause the roadway to crumble even more. 

“Only one way to find out,” Maggie said, taking a sip of water. She returned the bottle to her messenger bag, fastening the clasp tight, and adjusted the strap of the rifle hooked over her right shoulder. The shotgun stayed in her hands, with a round chambered and ready to go. She didn’t have enough firepower to take a dinosaur down, but she might, if she was lucky, have enough to scare one off.

She straightened her shoulders and murmured the childhood words that always came to mind when she was about to do something stupid: _“Hágase tu voluntad así en la Tierra como en el Cielo.”_

Then she stepped onto the bridge.

The footing felt uneven, like it had been warped from neglect and the constant heat of the sun, but it held, and Maggie could feel, beneath the spongy asphalt, a solid layer of concrete and steel. She caught a glimpse of that steel when she skirted past the first gap in the roadway some ten feet out, and then another perhaps forty feet into her crossing. 

The second gap was more frightening, though, because it was large enough that she could see past the steel girders to the emptiness below. Beyond it lay nothing but mist, endless and impenetrable, and a wind that blew up through the hole and brushed against the bridge’s cables like fingertips over guitar strings. _Singing bridges,_ or so they were called; supposedly the Golden Gate Bridge was one, and she and Alex had talked about experiencing it for themselves on their next weekend getaway. But now that Maggie had heard that banshee wail, she felt sure they could skip it in favor of more time in the Castro.

“Stay cool,” Maggie murmured under her breath, and kept walking steadily forward. The shadows were growing longer now, making it harder to discern the path in front of her, and by the time she reached the midpoint of the bridge it was close to fully dark. This was the danger time, Carlos had warned her; between sunset and moonrise, predators would be able to see her more easily than she could see them, and turning on a flashlight would only attract their attention. 

Of the options available, standing still for an hour while she waited for the moon to come up seemed the riskiest choice. And so Maggie shifted the shotgun into her left hand and reached around for the clasp of her messenger bag, intending to retrieve her flashlight. 

_Whoosh._

A sharp, electric current of fear shot from the base of her skull to the depths of her guts, warning her of danger in ways her actual senses could barely perceive. She froze, ever molecule in her body on alert, and listened to the wind sing its eerie song. 

_Whoosh._

She had heard that sound before, she realized. It was the sound of very large wings. 

A gust of wind tugged at her hair and clothes, and she lifted her head to look toward the sudden downdraft. She caught a glimpse of a winged shadow, and for a moment she had the oddest flashback to her days in Gotham, when the Bat would come swooping in just in time to fuck up a case. But even the Bat had never moved this fast, and the shadow disappeared into the twilight darkness, leaving nothing to see but the first, faint prickles of stars.

“Stay cool,” Maggie breathed, though her body very much wanted her to ignore that advice. “Stay cool, stay cool, stay —“ 

Her palms began to sweat, and she tightened her grip on the shotgun in her hands, grimly holding her ground as the bridge swayed beneath her. She saw a chunk of the roadway crumble and begin to fall, and she realized that she had no choice but to move, even if it attracted attention, because if it was a choice between falling through a hole and that damn dragon dinosaur then —

_Whoosh._

She ran.

Ten steps on, a downdraft hit her like a blast, knocking her off balance, and she staggered, her joints twisting and wobbling as they fought to keep her upright. It was enough to pitch her forward, and as her momentum gathered, she saw that she wasn’t about to fall onto battered asphalt, but into the emptiness of another gap in the roadway. She was down and through before she could even process what was happening, and then she was dropping like a stone toward that mist and whatever lay beneath it. Her heart lurched, her brain seized, and images flashed before her eyes: The look on her papi’s face as he dumped her in front of her tía’s house, the pride in Tía’s eyes on the day she had graduated from college, and Alex’s smile, Alex’s smile, Alex’s smile —

A claw latched around Maggie’s ankle, snagging her in its grasp. Every joint jerked and jolted as her fall was arrested mid-air, and she felt the rifle slip off her shoulder and whip down her arm until it fell, with a gentle twirling motion, into the abyss. But the shotgun was, somehow, still in her left hand.

Which meant she had one play left.

The Pteranodon’s wings swooped down toward her, then up again, blowing Maggie’s hair into her face. The smell of carrion wafted off the creature, and Maggie’s sinuses burned at the stench.

 _Wait,_ she thought.

The Pteranodon let out a triumphant cry, and Maggie heard it echo from far below. She looked down, and saw only a yawning blackness. 

_Wait,_ she thought.

The Pteranodon shifted directions, and Maggie felt its claw dig into her leg. She bit back a scream, her eyes watering at the pain, and felt blood trickle down her leg. 

_Wait,_ she thought.

The Pteranodon cleared the gorge, and treetops appeared beneath Maggie, enticing her with their soft, cushioning canopy. 

_Now,_ she thought.

Maggie lifted the shotgun and fired straight into the underside of the dinosaur above her. It shrieked in outrage, but didn’t let her go, and she chambered another round and fired again, aiming, as best she could, toward the soft flesh where hip met belly. Warm blood splashed down, and she closed her eyes and turned her head away as, with an angry shriek, the dinosaur loosed its grip on her. She felt a ripping, tearing pain radiate from her ankle, and then she was dropping, down, down, down. It almost felt peaceful.

She slammed into a branch, glanced off, and then twisted in mid-air. Leaves swarmed around her, branches whipped at her face and clothes and then she was sliding along a huge, smooth surface, like a blanket pulled taut, before she was falling again. She managed to catch a branch this time, and she clung to it, her shoulder shrieking with pain before her weight dragged her downward again. But it was enough; somehow, it was enough, and she landed atop a thick pile of forest mulch, its cushion filling her nostrils and falling over her clothes like soft powder. She lay there for a moment, dazed, before trying, very carefully, to move. Her right arm first, then her left, and then, finally, her hips and legs. 

“Fuck me,” she murmured, and pushed upward until she was sitting with her legs stretched in front of her. Her messenger bag strap had gotten twisted around her throat, and she resettled it over her shoulder and then tilted her head up to look at the pitch-black sky. She saw a shadow whisk overhead and heard a mournful cry, but it faded as the Pteranodon, too busy tending its own wounds to worry about its lost prey, retreated.

 _Don’t stop moving,_ said a voice in the back of her mind. Maggie wanted to curl up in a ball until her heart stopped thundering and her nerves stopped jangling, but the voice sounded like Alex, and Maggie knew it was right. The longer she lingered, the more likely some other creature, attracted by sound of her plunge through the trees, would show up looking for a free meal. 

And so Maggie pushed to her feet, her left ankle screaming in protest, and then peeled off the blood-soaked denim jacket clinging to her skin. She needed to leave it behind to avoid attracting predators, though her jeans and tank top were spotted with blood, too, and there was plenty of her own oozing from the claw gash on her leg. She could only hope it wasn’t enough to make her interesting.

She reached down for a branch to use as a walking stick, and as she did, her boot connected with something smooth and round and metal. It was the shotgun that had saved her from being eaten for the second time in the same day, and by some miracle, it was still in one piece.

“Pretty sure you’re my new best friend,” she said, and dug into her messenger bag for some spare shells. Once fully reloaded, she used the broken branch to brace herself and then took her first, tentative step on what, she suspected, was going to be a bitch of a sprained ankle. For now, there was nothing to do but keep moving and hope it didn’t seize up. 

But where to move to was the question. Maggie was reaching for her compass when she spotted, off in the distance, the top of the bridge reflecting the first shafts of moonlight glinting through the trees. It was the visual marker she needed; from there, she would be back on the road to next supply station. That would give her food, water, bandages and, most importantly, an ATV. After that it would be an easy coast to Downtown Jurassic, if all went well.

She wasn’t holding her breath that all would go well.

“Hell of a story to tell you when I find you, Babe,” she murmured under her breath, as she took her first, halting step on the next leg of her journey. “Begins and ends with, ‘I’m never letting your sister fly me anyplace ever again.’”

\----------------

It was close to midnight by the time Alex and Lena reached the outskirts of Downtown Jurassic. The moon was up, and its full light had guided them through the jungle and back to the theme park’s main network of roads. Lena had kept up surprisingly well, even with an injured leg. She would, Alex thought, have made one hell of a DEO agent. 

“Let’s rest here for a minute,” Alex said as they slipped into a shadow beneath one of the buildings that had appeared with increasing frequency as they neared the public-facing section of the park. This one was a maintenance shed, and Alex wondered if it was worth going inside to find a first aid kit, or perhaps more items they could use as weapons.

“You said Lex’s yacht could carry up to fifty mercenaries, correct?” Alex asked as she crouched alongside Lena. 

“With a little crowding,” Lena replied, and grimaced as she retied the blood-stained shirt that she had been using as a bandage around her leg. “If he’s got air support from the mainland, too, then who knows how many more he might have here.”

“He wouldn’t want too large a force,” Alex said, “at least not for this first infiltration. Other than the staff on the island, he doesn’t have a population to subdue, and logistics become an issue when you’ve got a lot of people to equip and feed.” 

“Plus, he’s cheap,” Lena said, in a tone of withering contempt, and Alex had snorted at that, because it brought to mind Lois’s rant at Christmas about Lex and his ‘cheap ass bargain basement goon squad’ fucking up her and Clark’s last vacation.

“All we wanted to do was go see Niagara Falls, maybe do some hiking,” she had said when the two of them had retreated to the Kent farmhouse porch with a bottle of tequila. “Instead, thanks to that son of a bitch, I spent the week freezing my ass off in the Fortress of Solitude while Clark and that Bat idiot tried to stop him from blowing up Gotham. _Again.”_

“I’m amazed Clark could convince you to go,” Alex had said as Lois splashed a refill into her glass. 

“I got knocked unconscious when Lex’s soldier boys broke into our hotel room and tried to kidnap me,” Lois said, grimacing. “I woke up three days later in one of the Fortress’s medical stasis chambers. Clark finally showed up four days after that carrying a bouquet of crystal roses. But he still didn’t get any for a week.”

“Alex,” Lena hissed, and Alex was pulled from the memory of tequila and stars on a cold Kansas night to the tropics and a sky full of different, though just as brilliant stars. She looked over at Lena, who was sitting with her back to the shed, her face tense with exhaustion. She had used the alien device to scare off predators three times on their trek back to Downtown Jurassic, and the strain was starting to show. 

“What’s up?” Alex asked, and Lena pointed toward the staff entrance some sixty yards away. Beyond that secure access point, she could see the backside of several of the buildings that lined the town square. It was the simplest way to access the downtown area, which meant, of course, that it was also being guarded by two of Lex’s black-clad mercenaries.

“Any thoughts on how we get through?” Lena asked, and Alex leaned back on her heels, weighing their options. Lena was moving well, but not well enough for her to run for any length of time, and there wasn’t a vehicle nearby that would allow them to crash the gates. It left them with few options other than shooting the guards and risking alerting any other commandos who might be lurking nearby. 

“What if…” Lena pointed to her temple, where the artifact had left a slight bruise from repeated use. “I could call something over, encourage it to distract them long enough that we could slip through.”

“I don’t think it's a good idea,” Alex said, and reached down to gently squeeze Lena’s arm. “You almost lost control last time, and I’m afraid, as tired as you are, that you might be at even greater risk of that happening again.”

Lena looked like she was about to argue, but common sense, along with exhaustion, won out, and she nodded once, tensely, and then leaned back against the shed again. “So what do we do?”

“I’m working on it.” Alex turned so that her back was the shed and leaned against it, closing her eyes. There was danger in holding still; muscles would cramp, and the body would begin to insist on sleep. But she also knew that even a few minutes of rest, paltry as they might be, could be the difference between keeping going and collapsing later down the line.

“Go to sleep if you want,” Alex murmured. “I can take watch.” 

“I don’t think I could,” Lena replied, and Alex heard a tight, tense excitement in Lena’s voice. “I’m so tired that my mind won’t stop spinning.” 

“The worst,” Alex replied, for she knew it well; had lived it for years, until Maggie moved into her bed and taught her how to sleep like she didn’t have a care in the world. “I feel like I’m standing beside myself when that happens, if that makes sense.”

“Only when I’m using this thing,” Lena said, and tapped the pocket where she had tucked away the alien artifact. “I feel like I’m really getting a hang of it.” She turned her head, and Alex cracked her eyes to see Lena looking at her in the darkness. “Every time I use it, it gets easier, Alex. The last time it almost felt like the raptor and I were…” She trailed off, and Alex could see the almost wistful look on Lena’s face. “Friends, I guess. If that makes sense.”

And Alex thought back then on the two times that another being had tried to take her mind for its own: Myriad, when she had been under the control of Non, and M’gann’s ex the White Martian, who tried to take over the DEO. In both instances, she remembered two things vividly: how seductive they had been at first, and then how they had used their persuasiveness to force her to give them things — her body with Non, her memories with the White Martian — that neither had a right to.

“Did Kara ever tell you about how I almost killed her during Myriad?” she asked, and Lena, startled, snapped around to look at her. Alex could see her eyes widen, the irises a silvery-gray under the light of the moon.

“She never did,” Lena admitted after the shock had passed. “May I ask what happened?”

“Non happened,” Alex replied, feeling her stomach twist at the memory. “He managed to get control of me and put me in Kryptonite armor, and there I was, fighting Kara to the death with the same sword I had used to kill Astra.” She clenched her fingers, remembering how it had felt to wrap her hand around that glowing green sword and know, with a nauseating certainty, that it would slide thought Kara’s body as easily as it had slid through her aunt's.

“But you fought it off,” Lena said, and Alex could hear the disbelief in Lena’s voice at the idea that anyone, much less Kara’s own sister, could put Kara at risk. “I mean, you must have, yes? Because Kara is still here, and she’s —“ Lena broke off, and Alex could almost see her friend blushing. “I mean…she doesn’t have any scars.”

“Mom stopped me,” Alex said, remembering the splintering pain that had gone through her head as Eliza, with J’onn’s help, had forced her way through the blocks. The words _Alex, you’re my Supergirl_ had been her salvation, but Alex still wondered, on those late nights when she lay in bed thinking too much, if it had been nothing more than sheer blind luck that she had broken free when she did. 

“So you got through it without any real harm,” Lena said, and Alex realized her friend was staring at her like she was the White Martian and not the human. Which, Alex thought, she might in fact be. 

“What I’m trying to say is, having been on the other side of a device like the one you’re carrying around, that I understand why you see it as having the potential to do enormous good.” Alex looked down at her hand, feeling it tremble at the thought of how close it had come to tearing her sister out of this universe forever. “But I also know how it can be misused. How people like Non, and the White Martian, and Lex can see it as nothing but a tool for domination. And no matter how much you want it to benefit others, I can’t help but think that sooner or later it will be corrupted by someone who sees it as a means to power.” She stared up at the stars and said, “The most beautiful things in this world always seem to be used to hurt the people they’re meant to heal, in the end.”

Lena tilted her head back, her lashes flickering as the pale, gold moon transitioned into the western sky. They both drifted for a time, in that silent place between sleep and wakefulness, until Alex, rousing herself, said: “Don’t listen to me. After all, I’ve killed five people and disabled three others since breakfast.” 

“You saved our lives,” Lena said, and reached out to catch at Alex’s hand. “And more importantly, you kept the artifact from Lex.”

“Maybe.” Alex frowned up at that moon and said, “Or maybe I just tore a bunch of lives out of this world, and with as little thought as a raptor.”

Lena turned her head, and Alex could see Lena’s face limned in silvery moonlight, like an oldtime movie star knowing how to find her key light. “If that was who you were, then I wouldn’t be sitting here, trusting you with my life.” Lena patted Alex’s hand and then, with a quiet sigh, let it go. “I was at your wedding, remember? I watched you cry like a baby when Maggie pulled you onto the dance floor, Alex Danvers. I know what a marshmallow you can be.”

“A marshmallow who can kill you six different ways with my —“ Alex broke off as the low hum of a motorized vehicle suddenly became audible. It wasn’t a car though; an ATV was Alex’s guess, or maybe a motorbike.

“Someone is on their way here, and in a hurry,” Alex said, and crawled to the far edge of the shed, looking toward the curve of the road in anticipation of the vehicle coming into view. “Maybe that’s the distraction we need.”

“The guards hear it, too,” Lena said, and Alex shifted back far enough that she could see the two men lifting their rifles into firing position. One of them appeared to be talking on his radio.

“That means they don’t know who’s headed their direction,” Alex said, as the hum of the vehicle grew into a high-pitched whine. “That could be good for us.”

The vehicle’s sound became louder, and Alex turned just in time to see it break over the horizon. It was a four-wheeler, and at first, it was hard to make out its rider, even in the bright moonlight. Then Alex caught a glimpse of a tan tank top, brown skin, and black hair streaming in the wind. Her heart leapt into her throat, and she let out a gasp of relief. “Oh my God. It’s Maggie.”

Lena pushed to her feet and crouched behind Alex, leaning against her shoulder. “There’s something moving behind her.” 

And Alex could see it then — on the road, but also in the tall grass on either side. A shifting, shimmering movement, sinuous and relentless, like a pack of — 

“Raptors,” she gasped, and heard Lena suck in a breath behind her. 

There were, Alex guessed, maybe ten of them, all racing intently after Maggie like she was the Pied Piper and they were the mice. But they were, in fact, the same hungry bunch of predators that Alex and Lena had fended off multiple times during their trek back to the compound. Now they had Maggie in their sights, and there was nothing to scare them away. 

“I should use the artifact to draw them off,” Lena murmured.

“Too many and too close,” Alex replied, and saw the lead raptor lurch forward and try to take a claw to the back tire. Maggie gunned the ATV just in time, and the creature lurched and fell, its fellows jumping over it in their haste to maintain the pursuit. 

“We have to help her,” Alex said, and lifted her rifle. 

“Wait,” Lena cautioned, just as Alex set her sights on the nearest raptor. “Maggie is going to crash the gate.” 

Alex heard the engine pitch upward as the ATV drew closer to the gate, rather than slowing, and realized that her wife was, in fact, about to plow through the damn thing, in spite of the rifles pointed at her. “Idiot,” Alex hissed, and turned to fire off several rounds at the guards, hoping it would distract them long enough that they wouldn’t fire at Maggie. It did the trick, but it also drew their fire, and Alex scuttled back toward the shelter of the shed just as a line of suppressing fire began to skitter into the dirt around her.

“Fuck,” she breathed, and heard the ATV’s whine increase to a fever pitch. She looked around the corner of the shed and watched as Maggie, her shoulders set in a determined line, breached the gate. The two guards scattered, their rifles firing wildly as they dove out of the way, and seconds later the raptors were on them. Alex winced as screams pierced the night. 

But it gave her their opening.

“Rifle ready. Stay close,” she said to Lena, and moved out, firing her weapon in short, quick bursts at the raptors gorging themselves on the two fallen mercenaries. Lena, she had discovered, had at least a basic understanding of combat technique, for she knew not to fire at the same raptors Alex was targeting, but to watch Alex’s back and take down those who tried to loop around and sneak in from their blind side. As they drew closer, the ones who remained scattered, one with the arm of a mercenary dangling from its jaw. 

By then they had reached the gate, and Alex gestured for Lena to halt, the two of them gingerly stepping over the scattered remains of what used to be two human beings as they walked through. One of the men was somehow still alive, and he looked up with her with desperate eyes. But there was only one way to help him, and Alex lifted her rifle, intending to make it quick.

“Let me,” Lena said, and fired a quick burst at the man’s head. Alex stared at her, stunned, and Lena just nudged her shoulder. “I never took the Hippocratic oath. Now go.”

The earsplitting sound of a shotgun punctuated the exchange, and Alex rushed forward through the passageway between two buildings. She found herself at the edge of an open courtyard with a fountain at its center. The ATV had crashed into it, and water was spilling everywhere from the cracked base and pooling out onto the flagstone walkway. Four men with rifles were closing in on one corner of a particular building, and Alex saw a puff of orange fire come from that direction. The weapon’s shock wave, trapped in the close quarters, boomed off the nearby buildings.

“Put your weapon on the ground! Now!” the lead commando shouted, and he and his fellows let off several more rounds of rifle fire.

“Fuck you, assholes,” Maggie replied, and one of the commandos dodged to the side as a shotgun blast nearly took him apart. It hit a building on the far side of the courtyard instead, and the plate glass window of an Yves St. Laurent store shattered. 

“Stay back and cover me,” Alex said, and then let out a burst of rifle fire. It took one man out at the knees and sent another skittering for the cover of the crashed ATV. The other two turned, firing wildly while they ran for cover, and Alex drew her sidearm and dropped one of them instantly. The other fixed his rifle on her, and she dove for cover and then rolled, coming up firing while, from behind Maggie’s shelter, another shotgun blast knocked him flat. 

“That was sick, Danvers,” Maggie called out, and Alex turned to see her wife peering out from behind the corner of a thoroughly shot to hell t-shirt kiosk. “You think we —“

A blast of rifle fire took out the wall right next to her, and Maggie yelped and ducked behind the kiosk. Alex, furious at herself for losing count, turned and shot the asshole hiding behind the fountain in the sweet spot between helmet and Kevlar. He groaned and dropped his rifle, and Alex kicked it away. She turned and saw Maggie limp out from the behind the kiosk, her shirt bloody, her hair a mess, and Alex rushed toward her until they collided like stars. 

Their kiss was searing, and Alex felt fire lick through her bones as their mouths and tongues said everything they needed to say: _I missed you. I was so goddamn scared for you. I am so glad you’re so smart and brave and beautiful and you made it here in one piece._

And then Alex heard a rifle fire, and turned, one arm wrapped protectively around Maggie, just in time to see another commando drop to the ground, the knife in his hand skittering across the pavement.

“Best wing woman ever,” Alex said to Lena, who just shrugged and turned to scan the far end of the street. 

“More will be coming soon,” she said, and Alex, holding Maggie tight, nodded. But she wasn't quite ready to finish being lost in Maggie's eyes. 

“Hey, you,” Alex said, and kissed Maggie again.

“Hey,” Maggie said with a grin, and then whispered, “I could do this forever, but we really should get to cover.” 

“This way,” Lena said, and gestured toward the collection of restaurants further down the roadway. “It’s time to eat and regroup, and then make some plans.”

“I could eat,” Alex said, and Maggie snorted against her as they followed the sign that said _Harbor_. It pointed in the direction of their only escape, and the one thing standing in their way.

Lex Luthor.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Whatever you had to do to get here, it was necessary.”
> 
> \----
> 
> See end notes for content warnings.

Maggie closed her eyes, letting her senses fill with the scent of chicken and pasta in white wine sauce being sautéed on a stove. Lena was humming softly as she did so, the tune both familiar and just out of reach. If Maggie weren’t sitting on a cold tile floor in a large industrial kitchen on an island currently under siege by both Lex Luthor and herd of rampaging dinosaurs, she could almost imagine that she was back in National City, listening to Lena prepare for one of the dinner parties she held for close friends on the third Wednesday of every month. 

But Maggie was sitting on a cold tile floor, and she was covered in bruises, and she had nearly become dinosaur food on multiple occasions in the last several hours. It would make for quite the dinner party conversation, if they ever got out of here. 

She heard Alex approach and turned to look at her, admiring, as she always did, the sharp planes of her wife’s cheekbones in the warm candlelight. Downtown Jurassic may not have had cell signal, but it did have power, yet they had opted to keep the lights off for fear one of Lex’s goons might spot them. Instead, they were relying on the votive lights in ornate glass globes that would have served as the restaurant’s centerpieces, had it ever opened.

Alex crouched in front of Maggie, setting the globe that had been lighting her way to the side. “Let me take a look at that ankle,” Alex said, the muscles in her shoulders rippling and she reached out and, with great care, took the boot on Maggie’s left foot between her hands. Maggie felt the pain ricochet through her and let out a hiss.

“That bad, huh?” Alex asked, and frowned, feeling along the bone in ways that made Maggie claw at the tile floor beneath her. 

“Ow, fucking hell, Danvers,” Maggie snapped, and tried to pull away. “Just stop it, will you?”

“You know I can’t,” Alex replied, and proceeded to torture Maggie some more. She relented at last, murmuring a quiet, “Sorry, Babe,” and then scowled down at Maggie’s ankle. “I need to get this boot off so I can really check it.”

“If you take that boot off my ankle will blow up like a balloon and I won’t be able to walk, and then we’re entirely fucked,” Maggie pointed out. She wasn’t happy about it; the ankle was trashed, and the gash on her calf from the Pteranodon’s claw only made it worse, but there wasn’t much they could do about either. Maggie couldn’t afford to be out of commission, no matter how bad her leg was mangled. Not when Alex needed her as backup. 

“I’d really like to get some x-rays and make sure nothing’s broken,” Alex said, and Maggie could tell that she was beating herself up, and not just for deciding they couldn’t risk making their way to Downtown Jurassic’s fully stocked medical clinic, even though Maggie needed x-rays and she and Lena both needed stitches. She’d cleaned and patched everyone’s cuts with the supplies in Maggie’s bag, and then taken care of her own, but she was still feeling guilty. Maggie suspected it had a lot to do with the trail of bodies her wife had left in her wake. 

“Hey,” Maggie said, her voice gentle. “Alex, whatever you had to do to get here, it was necessary.”

“I know. Until this is over, I’m a soldier first,” Alex said, though Maggie could tell that, once the dust had settled, Alex would need time to process the lives she had taken in the name of protecting herself and the people she loved from danger. For now, she compartmentalized it as she always did when they were in a crisis, focusing her attention not on her own emotions, but on Maggie’s injuries. Which meant she simply had to mess with Maggie’s ankle more, and then fuss at the thick thick bandage wrapped around Maggie’s calf. “You’re going to need a tetanus shot.”

“No fucking shit,” Maggie grunted, and Alex let out a soft laugh. She set the candle down and stretched out to snag a soup kettle from the cabinet Maggie was leaning on. Maggie just rolled her eyes and said, “Babe, let Lena. You know you can’t cook.” 

“I’m not cooking, I’m elevating.” Alex set the kettle next to Maggie’s foot, bottom up, and then carefully lifted Maggie’s ankle until she could slide the kettle underneath. “See? Field medicine at its finest.”

“You are a wonder, my love,” Maggie said, and let out a sigh of relief when Alex settled her foot onto the overturned soup kettle. “Just find me some Ibuprofen and don’t make me run too fast. I’ll be okay.”

“You’re such a badass,” Alex teased, and leaned to give Maggie a quick peck on the lips. “I wish you weren’t here, but I’m also really glad you are.” 

“Same,” Maggie said, and took Alex’s hand, their fingers threading together, and for an instant Maggie really believed that everything would turn out okay. 

A click echoed through the room as Lena turned off the gas and plated two portions of pasta. She walked over, holding one in each hand, and Alex took them both, a sheepish look on her face. 

“I can help you with that,” she said, but Lena just waved her off. 

“The least I can do almost getting you both killed is serve you dinner,” Lena said, and Maggie, shrugging, accepted her plate from Alex, who got up to go in search of silverware. 

Lena, meanwhile, had returned to the stove, returning with a third plate in one hand and a bottle of white wine in the other. “We might as well finish this off, since it’s open,” she said, and Alex returned with both silverware and wine glasses in tow.

“To not getting eaten,” Maggie said, as Alex poured three glasses and handed them around. 

“Or shot,” Lena said as she settled with her back to the counter, alongside Maggie. Alex sat across from them, cross-legged, and the three of them fell silent as they each tucked into their food. It tasted like heaven, though Maggie imagined that, as hungry as they all were, pretty much anything would have at this point.

Lena finished first and then walked over to the stove. She returned with the pan, apportioning out the remainder of the pasta and chicken. 

“There is an enormous amount of ice cream in that freezer over there, if anyone wants dessert,” Lena said, pointing at the standing freezer on the far side of the room. 

“I could definitely use some ice cream,” Alex said, and finished off her pasta in three quick bites. “But after that, we should get moving. I don’t want us to get pinned down here, but also, we need a better idea of what Lex may be up to.”

“Are you sure he’s even here?” Maggie asked, because based on her own experiences with Lex, he liked to stay at a bit of distance from the action. “He could just as easily be organizing this by Zoom.”

“If his yacht is here, then he is too,” Lena said, a hard note in her voice. “Lex likes to be present when he’s ruining my life. It’s much more fun than doing it from afar.”

“So what do you think his purpose is, besides stealing the artifact?” Alex said, her brow crinkling in a deep furrow that said she was fighting hard to put the pieces together. “He derails the monorail, blocks our signals, tries to take your artifact, and in the process, lets the dinosaurs loose. But what’s his endgame?” 

“I’m not sure he intended to let the animals get free,” Lena said, and Maggie sensed that she, too, had been thinking hard on this, in that detached way she had. “In theory, the emergency backup power on the animal containment areas should have worked. Which tells me that shutting down so many systems so fast may have caused the breakers on the emergency containment systems to fail.” She took a sip of her white wine and said, ruefully, “Yet another thing I should have asked Winn to check into.”

“It makes sense, though,” Maggie said, and blessed the wine for neutralizing the pain just enough that she could think beyond the constant throbbing in her leg. “The Giganotosaurus didn’t break out of its enclosure. It got out because the train derailment took out a huge chunk of the paddock wall. And both your lab and most of this town still have power. So the animals getting free must have been an unintended consequence of him shutting down communications.” 

“He can’t even commandeer an island with thirty people on it without creating chaos,” Lena said, her words bitter. There was fear beneath it all though, and Maggie reached out, on impulse, to press her hand over Lena’s. She felt Lena tense at first, and then soften, and then finally Lena turned to look at her, a world of grief in her eyes.

“If anything happens to Sam and Ruby because I invited them down here, I don’t know what I’ll do,” Lena said, with a fragility that Maggie had rarely seen. 

“Carlos knows how to handle himself,” Maggie said, with as much reassurance as she could muster. “And Winn is pretty good with that Legion ring, even if he is still, well…” She shrugged. “Winn.”

“Okay, it’s definitely time for ice cream,” Alex said, and Maggie caught her wiping away a tear. She pushed to her feet and went off to rustle through the freezer, returning with a tub of Rocky Road in one hand and strawberry in the other. She also had a bag of frozen vegetables tucked under her armpit, which she draped, with as much gentleness as she could, over Maggie’s ankle. 

“Should have thought of that the minute we walked in here,” she said with a rueful sigh.

“Babe, please give yourself a small damn break,” Maggie replied, and then let her head fall back against the counter, closing her eyes as, for the first time in hours, the gnawing pain radiating from her swollen ankle shifted from scream to muted roar.

“As soon as we’re out of this mess, I will,” Alex replied, and handed spoons all around.

They all dug in, Alex focusing exclusively on the Rocky Road, Lena the strawberry, and Maggie taking liberal chunks from both cartons. She did her best to savor these last moments of normalcy, because it wouldn’t be long before they’d be back on the streets, taking on who knew how many mercenaries and whatever else Lex might have in store. Alex was better than any of Lex’s flunkies, but they were still vastly outnumbered. They needed an advantage if they had any hope of making it out of this alive.

“Alex,” Maggie said, and Alex froze, her tongue flicking up to wipe away a streak of chocolate smeared across her upper lip. “Do you have a plan besides get closer and hope we don’t get shot?”

“I’m working on it,” Alex said, and spooned another mouthful of Rocky Road into her mouth. She was stress eating, Maggie realized, which meant she was trying to work through the mess they were in without letting her worry show. 

Maggie let her spoon fall into the tub and reached out, catching at Alex’s hand. “Hey,” Maggie said, and waited for Alex to meet her eyes. “You’ll figure it out, Danvers. You’re my badass, remember?”

Alex gave a wan half-smile and then dug out another spoonful of ice cream. She lifted her spoon toward Maggie, offering it in apology, and said, “All right, I suppose we’d better —“

There was a sudden, electric shriek, and then a man’s voice shouted, “Lena Luthor!” through a speaker in the far corner of the room. His voice was reedy, yet somehow commanding and, as always, it grated like a nails on a chalkboard.

“Lex,” Lena said in a dark voice, and jammed her spoon back into the remaining ice cream. “He’s using the public address system.”

“Lena, my darling sister,” Lex said, with another crackle of feedback that had them all wincing. This was followed by an off microphone, and entirely furious, “If you don’t fix that I will feed you to something with very large teeth myself!” There was a long pause, and Maggie could almost see Lex straightening his tie before he said, “Lena, my dear, I am sending this message throughout the island so that you will know, wherever you are, that you are needed at the docks to greet some VIP guests. And if you are tardy, then I am afraid you may end up missing their arrival. Isn’t that right?”

There was a lengthy pause, and then a timid voice said, “Aunt Lena? Aunt Lena, it’s Ruby. This man says…”

“Uncle Lex, Darling. If she’s Auntie Lena, then I’m Uncle Lex,” Lex insisted, and beside her, Maggie heard Lena make a despairing noise. 

“Uncle….” Ruby hiccupped, and Maggie could hear the terror in the girl’s voice. “Uncle Lex says you have to come to the docks or me and Mom and Uncle Winn and…”

“Yes, yes, that’s enough relatives,” Lex snapped, and brought the microphone back to his own mouth. “The point, my darling sister, is that if you don’t bring your beautiful, Armani-clad self out of hiding soon, then these lovely people will begin filling the bellies of whatever creature may be handy. There is this pool of water with the name ‘Mososaurus’ on it nearby. I’m sure it’s hungry.”

Ruby let out a shriek at that, and Maggie heard Sam’s voice cut across the line. “Lex, you son of a bitch, you leave my kid alone or I swear to God I’ll —“

There was the sound of a scuffle, complete with grunts and what Maggie suspected was more than a few blows, and Lena, already frozen with horror, let out a soft sob. “Just stay calm,” Maggie said, and looked over at Alex, whose face had hardened, in the shadowed candlelight, in that way it did just before she ripped someone’s throat out. 

“He’s threatening a child,” Lena rasped, her head bent, and Maggie reached over to press a hand to Lena’s arm. She felt it tremble, and looked over at Alex, feeling nauseous at the thought of how it felt to be so betrayed by people who claimed the name of family.

“He’s trying to get under your skin so you’ll make a mistake,” Alex said, her voice cold, and detached like it got when she was planning an op. “Don’t let him.”

The fighting noises ended, and Lex came back on the line, sounding like a man who had just been put out by the minor annoyance of someone mixing up his laundry. “Your friends are feisty, as are you, sister dear. But unlike you, the longer your friends are with me, the more likely they are to line the bellies of the creatures that you have so lovingly nurtured into renewed life on this beautiful island. So now it’s up to you. Do you bring yourself, and also that ancient, mysterious artifact that I know you are carrying with you to me, in the hope that we can reunite as family should? Or do you add your friends to the dinosaur buffet?”

There was a long pause on the line, and then Lex added, his voice suddenly cruel: “The decision is up to you.”

The PA system cut off, and Lena lifted her empty plate and hurled it, with a howl of rage, across the kitchen. It smashed into the wall, shattering into pieces, and Lena leaned forward, sobbing out her frustration. 

“We’ll stop him,” Maggie soothed, and then looked over at Alex, who was staring at her with a strange gleam in her eye. Maggie had seen that gleam before; it usually meant that Alex was about to do something batshit in the name of winning an unwinnable fight.

“Alex,” Maggie murmured. “What are you up to? And don’t tell me something stupid.”

“If the Mososaurus is still contained, then the other animals in Downtown Jurassic are, too.” Alex put her hand on Lena’s shoulder, rubbing her hand in soothing circles while she waited for Lena to focus. “Lena? Is that right?”

“It’s likely,” Lena said, and sat up, wiping tears from under her eyes. She straightened her shoulders and looked over at Alex, her mouth setting in a hard line. “If the power in Downtown Jurassic never wavered, then any animal that is contained in this part of the park would, logically speaking, also be safely contained.” She looked up at Alex, the faintest hint of hope in her eyes. “What, exactly, are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking about war elephants,” Alex said, and looked over at Maggie with that mix of defiance and guilt that was uniquely Alex.

“Alex, it’s too dangerous,” Lena said, her eyes widening in fear, at the same time that Maggie snapped, “Babe, that is taking ‘ride or die’ way too literally.”

“Well, I’m not planning on the dying part,” Alex said, and Maggie’s stomach sank, because it was clear that her wife saw this as the only way out, and if her big, beautiful, genius brain couldn’t come up with a better tactical plan, then there probably wasn’t one to be had. “I’ve been thinking this through since Lena and I crawled out of that wrecked Range Rover. Unless Kara appears and saves the day, it might be our only hope.”

Lena looked at Maggie, and Maggie looked at Lena, the two of them gauging whether there was any point in trying to fight. But Maggie just shook her head, and turned to look at Alex, sighing. “Okay, you idiot. You’ve convinced me. What do you need from us?”

“Just get me to the T. rex amphitheater,” Alex said, one corner of her mouth turning up in a dangerous smile. “And I’ll do the rest.” 

____________________

Their walk to the amphitheater was, surprisingly, without incident. Alex had expected that more of Lex’s men would be out patrolling the streets, but either they were spread too thin to patrol regularly or Lex had pulled them back on purpose. Alex suspected the latter: Lex knew Lena well enough to gamble that holding her friends hostage would draw her out of hiding, and he wanted her to feel welcome on the way to their rendezvous.

So she felt safe enough to pause for a moment, when they reached the gigantic steel door that would provide access to the _TYRANNOSHOW_ amphitheater, and say her goodbyes.

“My emergency access code should get you through any security doors,” Lena said as they huddled in the loading dock of a darkened California Pizza Kitchen. 

“And that is?” Alex asked.

“Kara’s Earth birthday,” Lena said, and blushed a little when Maggie muttered, “Girl, you are so whipped.” 

“Okay, so I go in through this door, and then what?” Alex saw Lena bite her lip and felt her own stomach clench. “Why do I think you’re about to throw in a complication?”

Lena sighed. “Issy is notorious for being a bit lazy. So once you are through the two sets of doors that lead you into the amphitheater proper, you will have to convince her to actually walk onto the elevator that will lift her up from her private nest on the sub-level to the show floor. And the best way to do that is to give her a goat.”

“Wait, she has to sacrifice a goat now?” Maggie looked over at Alex. “This version of the Matrix is getting weirder all the time.”

“Nana Rachel would say this is my punishment for refusing to attend Hebrew school.” Alex slipped the strap of the rifle she was carrying off her shoulder and offered it to Maggie. “Take it.”

“Alex,” Maggie protested, and Alex could see that her wife was about to start protesting their plan for reasons that had nothing to do with tactics. “You can’t go in there with nothing but a Glock.”

“Do you really think one semi-automatic rifle will make that much difference against a T. rex?” Alex asked, and Maggie, conceding defeat, took the rifle and slung it over her shoulder. 

“If you get yourself eaten like the guy who lost that damn device millions of years ago, I will never forgive you,” Maggie said, and Alex could hear that, beneath the edge in her voice, was real fear that they might be spending their last moments together.

Lena did what she could to offer reassurance, false though it might be. “I’ve watched Alex use this device. She adapted to it better than anyone I’ve seen, and that includes me.” 

Lena didn’t bother to mention that Alex had only used it on a cat, and for perhaps three minutes at most, and Alex shot her a look of appreciation for downplaying that detail. Lena countered it, not with the encouragement Alex expected, but with a caution of her own. “Just stay focused. Being inside those raptors was like trying to stay inside a canoe while going over a waterfall. I can’t imagine the T. rex will be any different.”

“As I recall, T. rex’s don’t have quite the same cognitive capacity, so I’m hoping that will work in my favor.” Alex opened her arms, pulling Lena into a tight hug. “Thank you. And don’t trust anything Lex says.”

“I learned that lesson a long time ago,” Lena said. She gave Alex a final squeeze, then stepped back, her eyes shifting from Alex to Maggie, and then back again. “I’ll give you some privacy.” 

She walked to the edge of the building, the rifle clutched in her hands, and Maggie leaned in close and murmured, “Still want to change jobs?”

Alex bubbled with laughter at that, and turned to look at Maggie, who was gazing up at her with the same proud, confident, protective fierceness that she projected whenever Alex was about to walk into battle. The moonlight gave Maggie’s face an ethereal, blue-tinged glow, and Alex wished that she could just stand there and look at her forever. 

“I love you,” she said, and one corner of Maggie’s mouth turned up at that. “I would say that a million times a day if I could.”

“I love you, too.” Maggie drew closer and lifted her left hand to press against Alex’s cheek. “I can’t ask you to not do anything crazy, because I’ve met you, but please be smart. Kara isn’t here to catch you before you hit the ground.”

“I will do everything I can to come home to you,” Alex replied, and then, with just a hint of reproach, “And you’d better do the same, little miss ‘blew a flying dinosaur out of the sky.’” 

Maggie laughed softly and drew Alex into a kiss then, and Alex wrapped her arms around Maggie’s shoulders and held her tight while they said to each other, in that language that was theirs alone, all the things that went beyond words. Love and reassurance and an unwavering belief in each other flowed across their connection from both sides, leaving them breathless, and it took an act of will to withdraw from it. Alex pressed her forehead to Maggie’s when at last she did, keeping that intimacy safe between them, like a flickering flame in need of protection, for just a moment more. 

“Don’t let Lena sacrifice herself to try to save the others,” Alex murmured. “We both know Lex will just kill them anyway, and probably you, too.”

“We’ll play for time,” Maggie promised. “As much as you need. Just…” She dragged in a breath, and Alex could hear the fear beneath the bravado. “Don’t take too goddamn long, okay?”

“Soon as I can.” Alex let out a soft laugh. “I’d say ‘Wait for my signal,’ but I have a feeling the T. rex footsteps will probably give it away.” 

“Subtle as always.” Maggie looked up at her, and Alex could see her dimples flash in a tight, anxious smile. “I’ll see you soon, Danvers.”

She tilted her head up to kiss Alex one last time, and Alex felt Maggie’s hand lift to grip at her bicep just beneath the bandage. Alex brushed her fingers through Maggie’s hair as their mouths slid against each other, their kiss tinged with a promise. And Alex was determined to do everything she could to keep it.

“Go,” Alex murmured, and felt Maggie nod against her, and then slowly back away. “Be safe.”

“Got my lucky shotgun,” Maggie said with a cocky grin. “It hasn’t failed me yet.”

“It won’t today,” Alex said, and Maggie, her mouth set in a determined line, nodded. Then she walked to the corner, pausing briefly to speak to Lena. They both turned to look at Alex, and Alex lifted a hand and nodded, biting the inside of her lip as, with one last smile for her in the moonlight, Maggie turned and rounded the corner.

Alex walked over to where Lena and Maggie had been standing, watching them move down the street; both limping a little, both clearly exhausted, but sure in their progression from shadow to shadow. They would be all right; she had to believe that, or this plan wouldn’t work. And so she chose to believe it.

She crossed the street, moving swiftly to the enormous, steel-reinforced bay door that would get her in and, hopefully, the T. rex out. She entered Kara’s Earth birthday into the control pad, letting out a breath she hadn’t know she was holding when the light at the top changed from red to green. There was a clunk, and then a booming thud, and the door began to retract. Alex watched it inch upward, the gap growing larger and larger until she could look straight into the loading chute and, beyond it, to the second door that would give her access to the T. rex.

She drew in a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and walked inside.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Caligula can go fuck himself."
> 
> \-----
> 
> See end notes for content warnings.

It was a five-minute walk from the _TYRANNOSHOW_ amphitheater to the harbor, though between the recently patched gash on Lena’s leg and Maggie’s bad ankle, it took nearly twice that. Alex had shoved a prescription-level dose of Ibuprofen down Maggie’s throat before they left their hideout, but her ankle still throbbed like a bastard. She wondered how long it would hold out before it collapsed altogether. 

It was something to factor into their tactics, such as they were. In a normal situation, Maggie put Lena somewhere stationary while she moved around, trying to draw fire. In this situation, however, it felt smarter for them to stick together, and hope that the cavalry would show up in the nick of time — if it showed up at all. 

But she didn’t have time to fret about what was happening with Alex right now. Her job was to protect Lena and keep their friends alive, and that was what she was going to do. 

Maggie had assumed that the others being captured by Lex meant that they had been forced to escape the other side of the island via the river cruise route, and when she and Lena reached the plaza that led to the harbor, that suspicion was confirmed. There were two boats moored at dock that ran alongside the Mososaurus enclosure — the black yacht Maggie had seen off in the distance that morning, and further past it, what looked like a nineteenth-century paddleboat. Maggie had ridden on one of those during a family vacation as a child; she remembered them to be slow and hard to turn, leaving Carlos with little ability to change course when it became clear that Lex had taken control of the harbor. 

Maggie’s one question was why Winn hadn’t used his ring to hold Lex off, but there was no time to wonder about that now. Not when she could see all of her friends on their knees and with their hands behind their backs next to the Mososaurus enclosure, plus a few more people wearing Jurassic World or L-Corp uniforms. Five commandos were standing behind them, each in full combat gear and with a rifle in hand. 

“The gang’s all here,” Maggie said, and felt Lena catch at her arm, tugging her into the deep shadow of a nearby restaurant. They hid under the dark blue awning, trying not to breathe, as three of Lex’s mercenaries approached via a side street. 

“Boss wants the raptors we caught brought here right away,” said the first of the three. “Something about putting on a show for his sister.” 

“It’ll be a show, all right,” said a second man. “There was nothing but pieces left of those guys on the gate.” 

They continued to chatter while the third called Lex’s orders into the radio, their steps carrying them away from Lena and Maggie’s hiding place. 

“That bastard,” Lena breathed when it was safe to talk. “He’s like a Roman emperor gone mad.” 

“Yeah, well, Caligula can go fuck himself,” Maggie growled. She peered toward the harbor, taking note of the stadium lights that illuminated the Mososaurus’s water-filled enclosure. The light spread out across the plaza, but the buildings on the perimeter were all dark, giving them shadows to hide in should they need them. Maggie studied the roughly circular layout, perhaps a quarter acre across, and identified three spots that would provide good cover for sniper fire should it be needed. She just wished their fully trained sniper was here, and not off trying to convince a dinosaur to take a walk. 

_Focus on what you can do,_ she reminded herself, and turned toward Lena, saying, “I’m going to —“

She broke off when she spotted a sudden flurry of activity on the dock. The mercenaries suddenly snapped to attention, and a moment later she saw a bald man in a tailored black suit walked down the yacht’s gangway and stride toward shore. At his side were two men, each dressed like Secret Service agents.

“Wonder if they have magic badges too?” Maggie said, rolling her eyes.

“If who do?” Lena asked.

“Never mind.” Maggie gestured that they should move closer to the perimeter of the plaza. “Let’s take a closer look.” 

They crept forward until they reached the corner of the restaurant. Lena hid behind a potted plant, while Maggie ducked behind the maître d’ stand. Her injured leg trembled as she dropped into a crouch, and she swore under her breath. She was losing strength in it fast, but there wasn’t much to do but gut it out and hope that Alex got here soon. 

Maggie’s new position gave her a better look at the hostages, and she studied them all for injuries. Carlos’s face was bloody, but Winn had taken a few hits too, and there was dried blood under his nose and on his shirt. Sam looked like she was going to have one hell of a shiner on her left eye, but Ruby, thankfully, seemed unharmed. The poor kid was sobbing like only an overloaded fourteen year old could, though, and Maggie wanted to shoot everyone who had terrorized the kid into that level of over stimulation. 

Lex, meanwhile, had reached the end of the dock. One of his men handed him a microphone, and Lex took it, adjusting the sleeves of his suit jacket like he was a lounge singer about to step on stage. He lifted the microphone to his mouth and said, “Lena. Lena darling. Are you out there?” His voice boomed through the speaker affixed to the exterior of the building, just above the maître d’ stand.

Lena drew breath like she was about to respond, and Maggie put a hand on her arm. “Don’t,” Maggie warned. “Let him ramble a little.”

“He does like to do that,” Lena replied, in a tone of withering sarcasm. But she did as Maggie asked and stayed put so Lex continued his villainous mansplaining.

“Lena, I know you are out there,” Lex said, “and it would make everyone so very happy if you would step forward and join our little party.” Lex paused for a moment, his head tilted like he was listening for a response. “Oh, come on, Lena,” he said after several seconds. “You built this wonderful venue for us. I would hate to see you miss the show!”

Lena clutched at the rim of the planter in front of her in a death grip, but she held back, even when Lex, pacing behind the hostages, suddenly came to a stop behind Sam. 

“The silent treatment? Is that what I get?” Lex’s voice took on a malevolent edge. “Pity. Maybe if I —“ He reached down suddenly, grabbing Sam around the neck, so forcing her head upward while her back arched. “Maybe if I threaten your friend the number cruncher? What would happen to your precious L-Corp if you didn’t have your financial wizard around anymore?”

“She wouldn’t need me if she wasn’t constantly having to fight you off,” Sam grated, her voice near enough to the microphone that it could be heard over the speakers. 

Lex let out a wild laugh, his face splitting in a maniacal grin. “Sassy to the last. You do love to surround yourself with outspoken women, sister dear. Mother would be proud.” 

Lex let go of Sam, pushing her so hard that she nearly fell face forward onto the concrete. Lex didn’t pay any attention; he had, Maggie saw with a knot of apprehension, already moved to stand behind Ruby. 

“What about this little angel?” he asked, catching a lock of Ruby’s hair between his fingers. “Your beloved little ‘niece.’” He put air quotes around the word, his face showing the contempt with which he viewed Lena’s affection for the girl. “’Aunt Lena! Aunt Lena will save us!’” he mimicked, and Maggie had to catch at Lena’s arm to keep her from charging into the middle of the plaza.

“We need to buy time,” Maggie murmured, and once again, Lena nodded, though Maggie could see Lena was very close to snapping. Maggie strained her ears, hoping she would hear the rumble of a T. rex on the prowl, but there was only the sound of the boats creaking against the dock and, further off, the waves lapping against the shore. 

“Maybe we should take you for a ride,” Lex said to Ruby, and Maggie watched Ruby close her eyes and bow her head, her sobs loud enough that they echoed through the PA system. She saw Winn wince, and Sam let out a torrent of inaudible words that, Maggie was certain, were a plea to leave her daughter alone, but Lex just shook his head and yelled, in a voice filled with glee, “What do you say, boys? Should we string up the little girl?”

“No,” Ruby screamed, and Sam began shouting to leave her kid alone, and then Winn straightened his shoulders and looked straight at Lex.

“Take me,” he bellowed, and Maggie felt her heart swell with pride as her little brother stepped into the role of reluctant hero. “You want someone to be whale chum, you wannabe Superman creep? Let me go first.”

“Don’t mention Superman, Winn,” Lena said, and there was dread in her voice. She looked at Maggie, her eyes wide, and breathed, “He really can’t stand it when people insult him by invoking Superman.” 

“Winn has his Legion ring,” Maggie reminded her. “He knows what he’s doing.” 

But even with that, it wasn’t easy to watch Winn be grabbed by three commandos and dragged toward the steel cable that dangled from a crane at the edge of the Mososaurus enclosure. They wrapped the cable around Winn and began to lift him skyward, and it was only then that Maggie realized the crane’s actual purpose: it was how the Mososaurus was lured to the surface during the park’s aquatic show. 

“This is in my dream,” Lena hissed, and Maggie felt Lena start to tremble as Winn, his legs kicking wildly, was lifted some thirty feet in the air. The crane then rotated, drawing Winn out over the water until he came to a stop near the center of the watery enclosure. 

“Imagine the spectators lined up on all sides, watching for that first ripple on the water’s surface,” Lex said as the crane came to a stop. “Will the great white whale take a piece a time, or will he really put its back into it and decide to swallow the man whole?”

Winn began to swing in a lazy circle, and Maggie realized then that all his kicking and twitching, panicked though it might seem, had a purpose. He was trying to retrieve something from his back pocket, and Maggie knew, on instinct, that he’d hidden his Legion ring there until he could use it effectively. A surge of hope ran through her, and she squeezed Lena’s arm, saying, “Okay, you’re on.”

“What, now?” Lena asked, her eyes widening in surprise. 

“Yes.” Maggie pointed up at Winn. “Winn’s about to use his ring. Be the distraction he needs.”

She nudged Lena out from behind the potted plant, watching as Lena, stumbling at first, rose to her full height and then began to stride toward the center of the plaza. Multiple rifles fixed on her at once, and she lifted her hands, calling out, “Lex, really. All that blather, and you have nothing more interesting planned than to shoot me?”

“Stand down! Stand down!” Lex shouted into the microphone. He flapped his hands until his men lowered their weapons, and then turned to look toward Lena, his face creasing in a wide smile. “Lena. Darling. You look fabulous.”

“I look like hell, and you know it,” Lena replied. “But then you’re the one who put me through it, aren’t you?”

“Touché,” Lex said with a reluctant nod. “You must understand, I didn’t know you’d be mixed up in all of this. I just wanted that shiny little toy of yours.”

“Then let my friends go and we’ll talk about it,” Lena said, and Maggie heard a pleading note within her cool, collected banter. “There’s no reason to torture my friends, Lex. Let’s just talk.”

“I’m not torturing them, sweet Lena,” Lex scoffed, and behind him, Winn mouthed something that looked a lot like, yeah, right. Lex chuckled then, like he was trying to be reassuring — but as with most things Lex, it came across as both sinister and slimy. “I’m just testing their fortitude.”

“You can call it whatever you want, Lex.” Lena took three steps forward, and Maggie watched one of Lex’s men lift his rifle and aim it at her, only to have Lex gesture for him to stand down. Lena shot the man a withering glare and then turned to look at her brother. “To me, it appears that you’re menacing a child, her mother, and several other people who have done nothing wrong, just to stick it to me.” 

“But I don’t want to stick it to you, Darling, pleasant as it might be,” Lex said, and then leered while Lena, stone faced, ignored the double entendre. Lex looked disappointed at that, but shrugged it off, saying, “What I want is bring you back into the fold. You’ve had your time out in the world, away from the bosom of your family. But now it is time to take your place at my side, as the rightful…” He paused, stroking his beard in imitation of some ponderous college professor searching for the right analogy. “Is there a good example of a woman ruling by her brother’s side? I know the Egyptians were fond of the practice, though it feels a bit incestuous to me.”

“Cleopatra drowned her brother so she could rule alone,” Lena said, arching an eyebrow. “That seems a reasonable model to follow.”

“Ah, yes, we do seem to have a great deal of water available.” Lex clapped his hands together and said, “But before you make your attempt, I thought perhaps you might want to hear a bit of news. It’s about your…” He made a face. “Your _friend,_ Kara Danvers.” 

“What about Kara?” Lena asked, and Maggie could see that Lena was irritated, but also a bit shaken, that Lex was bringing her girlfriend into the mix. 

“Well, there is something you may not know about your beloved BFF, the perky reporter.” Lex shifted the microphone from his right hand to his left, and then leaned in close to Ruby. “Can you think of what it is?” 

Ruby choked back a sob, and Lex, making a face, moved on to Sam. “Can you think of what it is?” he asked again, and Sam glared as he put the microphone to her mouth.

“Fuuu—“ Sam said, and Lex ripped the microphone away.

“Oh, my, this is a PG show, PG-13 at best!” Lex exclaimed. “None of that, now, Samantha. I think next, we’ll be dangling you over a truck full of velociraptors.” He turned to look at Lena, his gaze fixed in a steely glare. “The answer, dear sister, is this. Your friend, Kara Danvers, the intrepid, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, is none other than…” He paused for dramatic effect. “Supergirl!”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Maggie muttered under her breath, and craned her head around, as best she could, to see the smirk on Lena’s face. She had a feeling it was the biggest one ever. 

“Lex,” Lena said, in that patient tone of voice that, Maggie knew, she reserved for men that she was about to dismantle within an inch of their lives, “Kara and I have been dating for a year.”

“I know that!” Lex exclaimed, as if this was old news. “But did you know that your paramour is, in fact, the last daughter of the house of Zor-El, Kryptonian royalty, and also, to boot, the cousin of Superman?”

Lena’s head turned slightly, and Maggie sensed that she was trying very hard to not look over and give Maggie’s position away. She drew in a breath, composing herself, and then repeated, with even greater patience, “Lex, Kara and I have been _dating._ For a _year.”_

“We all know,” Maggie heard Sam say, like she was confirming a bit of juicy gossip at a dinner party. “They make a really cute couple.”

“They do,” Winn called out. “Kara is also, like, the absolute worst at keeping her secret identity.”

“Once she took me flying,” Ruby chimed in. 

It took a moment for Lex to process what everyone was saying, and Maggie could see the scenarios, many of them pornographic, that were suddenly flashing through his evil little mind. He gave a visible shudder, his face twisting in a grimace, and then threw up one hand in disgust. 

“Fine!” Lex shrieked. “Ruin my big surprise! But for that,” he pointed up at Winn, “for that, I think your friend Mr. Schott has earned a bit of punishment!”

“Oh, yeah?” Winn yelled, and Maggie saw him twist and kick as he drew his bound hands away from the small of his back. “Punish this, Lex Luthor!”

His fingers came together, his face flush with triumph, and Maggie saw something fall away from him. It flashed a metallic gold under the lights.

“Oh, no,” Winn said, and stared at Lena, wide eyed and panicked. “Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, come on. No!”

The ring plopped in the water, and beneath it, something stirred. Winn must have seen it, too, because he tilted his head back, staring up at the cable holding him in search of some means of escape. 

Just then, a truck rumbled past Maggie and came to a halt alongside the crane. A steel reinforced box was anchored to the truck bed, and Maggie heard an eerie shriek echo from inside.

“Samantha, your raptors are here!” Lex shouted, and Ruby let out a terrified squeal. He ignored her and turned to stare down Lena, his voice filled with a manic glee. “But first, let’s see how contestant number one does in a game I like to call ‘Fishing for Mososaurus!’”

What happened next was chaos, and even later, when Maggie tried to slow it down, she couldn’t quite process every detail. She remembered Winn shouting as the crane operator began to lower him closer to the water, and Ruby letting out a keening wail that the velociraptors decided to imitate. She remembered raising her rifle and setting her sights on the crane operator’s neck, and the desperation in Lena’s voice as she shouted, “Lex, I’ll give you the artifact. I’ll give you everything. Just leave my people alone!”

“Everything?” Lex asked, and raised a hand, gesturing for the crane operator to raise Winn up again. The hydraulic whine echoed through the plaza as he turned to Lena, his eyes wide with surprise, and said, “Even that fabulous rooftop apartment in your luxury hotel?”

“Everything,” Lena said, her head bowed in defeat.

Lex looked over at his sister, a triumphant smirk on his face. “Lena, I think that’s —“

Maggie felt the ground tremble, and the windows of the restaurant behind her rattled. Lex and his men, startled, looked around in confusion.

“Was that an earthquake?” someone called out.

The crane operator shut down the winch, and for a moment there was silence. Then came another tremor, and this time, it made a sound.

_Boom._

\---------------

 _Lena was right,_ Alex thought. _This dinosaur is fucking lazy._

Alex had spent the last five minutes crouched at the edge of the sand-covered floor of the amphitheater, listening to the very anxious goat she had tethered next to the hole in the floor bleat and plead for mercy. In spite of all this, Issy, the laziest carnivore on the planet, hadn’t even so much as poked her head up. It was, Alex thought, getting a bit tedious. 

“Issy,” Alex crooned, and heard a rustling noise come from the hole. “Issy, come on!”

There was a thump that reverberated through the amphitheater floor, and Alex imagined the T. rex raising its head and then, deciding it wasn’t worth the effort, laying it back down again. 

“Fucking dinosaur,” Alex muttered. “You’re lazier than Gertrude on a Sunday morning.”

She leaned back on her heels, weighing her options. Lena and Maggie only had so much time before they were captured, and Alex didn’t like the odds of how long Maggie in particular would last as Lex’s prisoner. It was time to force the issue.

She drew the alien artifact out of her pocket, recalling the overwhelming rush of feelings that had flooded her when her mind merged with Jonesy the cat. She wondered if a T. rex would be harder to manage, or easier. 

“Only one way to find out,” she murmured, and lifted the device to her temple. She felt an electric current whisper across her skin, and then there was a sharp metallic sensation, like biting into tin foil. Her head spun like she was in free fall, and then —

_Quiet. Dark. Nest. Peace._

Alex heard the goat bleat, in that strange dual way that she had experienced with the cat, and her mind was filled with a sensation of warm coppery goodness sliding down her throat. But that would mean moving, and —

Alex snapped back into herself, Lena’s warning about getting lost in the dinosaur’s emotions ringing in her ears. If she wanted to avoid going over the waterfall, she was going to need a level of mental discipline well beyond anything she had summoned before. 

She breathed in and out as J’onn had taught her, drawing energy into her body, and then slowly let herself reconnect with the T. rex, letting herself sink into the sleepy comfort of a dinosaur curled in its nest. She wormed her way inside, feeling its limbs as her limbs, its lungs as her lungs, its tail — so that was what it was like to have a tail — flicking lazily as she hovered in that space between wakefulness and sleep.

Then Alex added something new into the mix; something very like the directed dreaming techniques J’onn had taught her to manage her nightmares after Rick Malverne had locked her in a water tank. Now, instead of redirecting her mind from the terror of drowning to the relief of rescue, she turned the dinosaur’s mind from the pleasures of sleep to the sensation of coppery goodness, to the smell and taste of meat, fresh and warm, sliding down her throat. She drew from her own experiences to give the feelings texture: she had never eaten a goat alive, of course, but she’d enjoyed a steak fresh off the grill more than once, and there was something primal about slicing into a slab of meat and seeing the juices, still fresh, pool on her plate. 

The amphitheater trembled as Issy, lured by this imagery, began to move. Alex felt the reverberations on two levels: through her feet, on the warm sand of the amphitheater, and throughout her body as Issy uncoiled from her nest and began to move. She took a lazy step, yawned, and then took another, and Alex felt the surface beneath her feet shift from the soft sand of Issy’s nest to the hard steel of the elevator platform. 

_Want want food want eat lift now_

Her brain translated Issy’s reaction as a request, and she reached behind her, pressing the switch that would lift the elevated platform upward and into the amphitheater. She felt as if she was rising, and her eyes burned with the adjustment from darkness to light as —

Issy’s head appeared in front of her, those enormous brown and gold eyes fixated on the goat, and Alex felt a gut-loosening terror race through her. That was a T. rex, it was a fucking T. rex, and when it was done with the goat it was going to come for her and — 

The goat shrieked, and the taste of blood — hot, warm, live blood — flooded through Alex’s mouth. She knew it wasn’t there, but she felt it slide down her throat nonetheless, and she swallowed reflexively as the goat, still struggling, slithered down Issy’s gullet. She felt it land in the pit of her stomach, and a warm, comforting feeling of satisfaction went through her body. 

_Food good food tasty food want more food_

Issy’s eyes locked onto Alex, and at the same time she saw herself, not like she might see her reflection in the mirror, but as something other and alien. A jailer, a watcher, now made prey.

 _Strong one weak,_ she felt, and saw Issy’s nostrils flare as she drew in the scent of human flesh. _No sticks that sting. No walls that block._

_Vulnerable._

_Mine._

She felt Issy’s triumph at the thought, her joy at being able to get a taste of those creatures that had controlled and manipulated her from birth. It was the resentment of a lifelong prisoner set free. But she didn’t just want to devour Alex; first, she wanted to play.

Fear crackled up Alex’s spine, screaming at her to run, to hide, to do anything she could to get away from this monster that was staring her down. Issy took another step toward her and let out a bellow, and the sound hit Alex like a physical force, knocking her back a step. A smell washed over her; the warm, pungent stench of carrion long consumed.

“Fuck,” she breathed, and put one hand out, on instinct, as if that pleading gesture would somehow stop the dinosaur from tearing her apart. She saw, through Issy’s eyes, her own fear and terror, and felt Issy lust for that moment when Alex would turn and run.

Alex didn’t run.

She braced her legs, held still, and looked straight into those translucent, slightly cross-eyed T. rex eyes. She gathered every ounce of strength she had and sent thoughts pouring into Issy’s brain; thoughts of freedom, of roaming free over an island filled with Brachiosaurus and Gallimimus and other docile prey. Of the sun warm on her face as she hunted, the satisfying taste of raw flesh, and of a night sky over her head, unlimited by towering walls. And then Alex conjured up the image of a bald man with a goatee, a man with pain sticks who would take all this away. She painted a world run by this man, and by the men that followed him; a world in which Issy had no nest and no comfort and was always hungry and afraid. 

“You can be so much more than what he will let you be, Issy,” Alex murmured, feeling Issy’s rage rise at the flood of images seeping into her brain. “You can be a queen.”

Issy bent her head, her breath hot and warm, and thrust her snout just inches from Alex’s face, waiting for her to flinch. And Alex wanted to; she wanted to gibber and scream and cower and beg for a mercy this T. rex had no interest in giving. It was the smart play, her body told her; it was the only chance she had. 

Instead, Alex projected strength, not just in how she faced the T. rex down, but in the images she directed into the dinosaur’s mind; images that showed how she had taken down men like Lex and fought to rescue both humans and aliens alike. As Issy grew more receptive, Alex offered herself as a partner in Issy’s quest for freedom, a champion who could help her navigate the human world until she could rid herself of them once and for all. And all the while, Alex continued to feel Issy’s hot breath waft over her face, and her own eyes took in those razor sharp teeth, each one thick as a pike, just inches from her head. 

Issy puffed out a breath, and Alex felt it ruffle her hair, as a thought, simple and elemental, came into her brain. She saw the image of Lex that she had projected reflected back at her, accompanied by a wave of emotion that she could only describe as, _Eat this asshole?_

 _Eat this asshole,_ she projected back, and Issy, with a satisfied huff, lifted her head. She let out a bellow toward the sky, and Alex taking it as permission, circled around to Issy’s side. She put a hand on Issy’s flank and felt the warm, strong flesh beneath the diamond-patterned skin. The full moon above gave it a silvery hue, and for a fleeting moment, Alex imagined herself as the heroine in her favorite childhood story, climbing atop a magical beast as they set off on a grand adventure.

Issy preened at the notion, and Alex, chuckling softly, sent a wave of love toward her. “Come on, Diva, help me up,” she murmured, and Issy, sensing the emotion behind the words, bent one knee just enough that Alex could use it as a footstool. She hiked her other leg over the T. rex’s broad back, settling into place across her shoulders, and marveled at the power contained within the massive build. Forward, she thought, and Issy trudged through the vast loading dock tunnel and out into the open street. 

It was, Alex realized, far easier to see through Issy’s eyes when they were both pointing the same direction. Focusing on the same things, albeit at slightly different angles, substantially decreased Alex’s sense of visual overload. She was still going to have one hell of a migraine when this was over, but for now, at least, she could concentrate on guiding them toward the stadium lights near the harbor. Lex’s voice was blaring from the public address speakers affixed to every building, and that glare was a pretty clear indication of where he was originating his broadcast. 

“Samantha, your raptors are here!” Lex was screeching. “But first, let’s see how contestant number one does in a game I like to call ‘Fishing for Mososaurus!’”

He sounded like a game show host who’d done a bit too much coke before airtime, and Alex could feel Issy recoiling at the sound of his voice, her thoughts turning toward lush fields and thick flocks of Gallimimus. 

_Leave here go pretty nature eat running food_

“I’d like to run away too,” Alex murmured, “but we have people to help,” and projected images of her friends and their shared experiences together. Issy, she was realizing, had never really had another dinosaur as companion, and Alex felt both loneliness from her, and a longing borne of something she knew she wanted but didn’t really understand. It felt more than a little familiar.

“Okay, you lonely lesbian,” Alex murmured, and Issy chuffed at the feeling she projected behind the words. “You ready for your coming out?” 

_Stop noisy jerk,_ came the images, and Alex sent back her approval, urging the T. rex further down the street. Around them, window glass rattled and pavement cracked as, with Alex’s urging, Issy picked up speed until they were moving at a rapid clip. Soon, she saw the street widening where it emptied into the harbor plaza, and the towering lights above.

And then she saw many things, with both her human and her T. rex eyes.

She saw Winn dangling like a fish on a line above a pool of water. 

_Dangly human snack_

She saw Lena standing at the center of the plaza, back ramrod straight, with ten guns trained on her.

_Pretty human snack_

She saw Carlos and Sam and Ruby on their knees. One of Lex’s men was dragging Sam to her feet, and Ruby, shrieking hysterically, was trying to stop him.

_Noisy tiny human snack_

She saw Lex, pointing toward a truck at the edge of the plaza, grinning with glee while its animal cargo shrieked and fought to escape.

_Evil human snack_

She saw Maggie creep toward the back of the truck and climb onto its gate, pulling free the pin that was keeping its cargo contained. The raptors plunged forward at the first crack of open space, and Maggie clung to the door as it swung wildly and nearly came free. 

Issy was overwhelmed then by a sense of primal dread, as millions of years of instinctive fears about these fast, smart pack hunters were activated in a split second. But there was irritation, too, and the device translated that in a single contemptuous phrase.

_Idiot human snack_

“That’s no idiot, that’s my wife,” Alex replied, and urged Issy forward into the chaos. And it was truly chaos now, because the raptors had gone after the nearest of Lex’s men, who fired in panic and then ran down a side street, the raptors in hot pursuit. Lex was yelling for the raptors to be contained, but one look at what was happening to their fellow mercenaries had Lex’s remaining men backing toward the dock. 

It gave Carlos an opening; somehow he had gotten his wrists free, and now he jumped to his feet and elbowed the nearest guard in the face. He snagged the man’s rifle and stepped in front of Sam and Ruby, urging them toward safety, and then began putting down a suppressing fire that would keep both raptors and commandos away.

Winn, meanwhile, was the first person to see Issy coming, because he screamed, “Lena! Behind you!” 

Lena turned, and Alex saw the fear on her face, both with her own eyes and with Issy’s, too. Lena ran toward shelter, and was barely out of the way when Issy, in full rampage mode, clipped the corner of the nearest building with her tail. A huge chunk of brick fell free, and Alex felt the sting of the impact reverberate through the link. The connection wavered, and for an instant Alex felt Issy’s emotions begin to swamp her mind. 

_Eat eat kill smash scare leave make leave_

Issy bellowed, and Alex, pushing through a wave of head-splitting pain, struggled to reestablish her rapport with the enraged dinosaur. Issy bucked and fought, and Alex clung to her neck, trying to get the animal focused on taking down Lex. But Issy had honed in on another target instead: one who was crouched beside a truck, firing a shotgun at Lex’s retreating men, with blood seeping through the bandage around her leg. 

“No,” Alex said. “Oh Issy, no.” 

But Issy bellowed in rage and veered toward the truck, picking up speed as she lumbered toward her target. 

_Eat fire stick small blood good,_ Issy thought, and Alex was overwhelmed with the T. rex’s desire to tear Maggie apart.

 _Stop. Wife,_ Alex fought back, and sent images of herself with Maggie, in bed, sharing meals, holding each other on the couch after a hard day.

 _Wife?_ Issy asked, her question tinged with bewilderment.

And Alex sent all her love for Maggie through the connection: her instinct to protect Maggie, and her need to be protected by Maggie. She gave the T. rex intimate images she would have been reluctant to share with anyone else — not just of sex, but of comfort and emotional intimacy, and of them fighting side-by-side, too. 

_Mate!_ Issy thought, in a rush of sudden understanding, and Alex saw images of two T. rex’s doing all the things that Alex imagined a pair of T. rex’s might do: hunt, play, eat, curl up in a nest together. Alex sensed that these were the dreamy projections of a lonely teenage dinosaur, but she could use them, and so she did.

 _Protect mate mine,_ she thought, and then held her breath as Maggie, pinned down by two of Lex’s men, was cut off from retreat by Issy’s approach. Maggie looked over her shoulder, saw she was hemmed in and, with grim determination on her face, fired at Lex’s men again. 

_Protect mate yours,_ Issy projected back, and Alex, dizzy with relief, felt Issy shift her trajectory to go after the men that had Maggie cornered. She leaned to her left as far as she could, stretching out her arm. “Mags! Grab on!”

Maggie fired one last time and then twisted, grabbing hold of Alex’s forearm. Alex heaved upward as the T. rex swept past, and the momentum was enough to pull Maggie onto the dinosaur’s back. She wrapped an arm around Alex’s waist and scooted upward until she was pressed tight against Alex’s back.

“Miss me?” Maggie asked, her breath hot against Alex’s ear, and then turned and fired a blast at one of Lex’s soldiers.

“Maybe a little,” Alex replied, and clung to Issy’s neck as she reared up and swung her snout at one of Lex’s mercenaries. The man screamed as he went flying through the air, and the rest of them turned tail and ran for the dock.

“What are you doing?” Lex screamed into the microphone after his retreating forces. “Don’t you fools understand? Father never had any respect for John Hammond, and this is why!”

Lex dropped the microphone then, and Alex saw that he was trying to decide which way to run. But Carlos had him cut off from the dock, and Issy had him pinned against the Mososaurus enclosure. 

Alex saw the split-second calculation in Lex’s eyes, and then he pulled out a silver-plated handgun and fired a shot at Carlos, winging him in the shoulder. Carlos dropped to the ground, and Lex lunged toward Ruby, dragging her in front of him while both she and Sam screamed. 

“What do you want, huh?” Lex shouted, and Alex’s ears, on two different levels, were filled with Ruby’s panicked screams. “You’d like this little girl. She’s tasty!”

“Lex, you bastard!” Lena cried, and Winn shouted too, kicking his legs in helpless fury. 

But it was Sam who gave them their chance. She pushed to her feet, hands still tied behind her back, and body-slammed Lex with all her might. He lost his grip on Ruby, and the girl, with a shriek, fell to the ground. Lex, enraged, pointed the gun straight at Alex and fired. 

The shot went wide of the mark, glancing off Issy’s eye ridge, and Alex felt a burning sting like she’d just taken a bullet graze to the eyebrow. _Eat this asshole?_ Issy asked as Lex, panicked and gibbering, lifted the gun to fire again.

Alex tried to stop herself, she really did. But dinosaur logic had her in its grip, and besides, Issy was hungry. _Eat this asshole,_ she confirmed, and before she could rethink it, Issy had lifted her head and opened her mouth wide. 

“No! Not my —“ Lex shrieked, and Alex could have sworn she heard the word _suit_ come from inside the dinosaur as Issy opened her throat and engulfed Lex all the way to his knees. There was a squirming sensation in her mouth, and then the taste of blood flooding against her tongue, and then Issy’s jaws snapped shut and Alex heard a muffled scream. Issy swallowed, and Alex felt something flailing against the dinosaur’s sternum, and against her own too. 

She watched as Lex’s legs, cut off below the knees, dribbled from the dinosaur’s mouth. One plopped into the water of the Mososaurus enclosure, and as it sank, Alex saw that it was still wearing a handcrafted Italian loafer. 

“Oh, that’s not right,” Maggie groaned, and Alex felt something — perhaps a fist — slam against the inside of the T. rex and then go still.  


“That was not,” Alex said, as a flood of triumphant T. rex emotions washed over her, “exactly how I expected that to go.”

“Not that I don’t love riding bitch with you, Babe, but you think we could get off this dinosaur now?” Maggie asked, and tucked her chin into Alex’s shoulder. 

Alex drew breath to answer, but before she could, she felt a rush of fear wash through the connection. Issy snuffled and back up a step, and Alex saw then that there was a bubbling in the pool of water, not far from where Lex’s leg had landed. 

“Guys,” Winn called out, and then louder, in horror, “Guys, I think that the Moso-whatever you call it is awake!”

“Oh, my God, no,” Lena screamed, and Alex turned to see her racing toward the crane’s abandoned controls. Sam shouted in terror, and Ruby shrieked, and Maggie swore and lifted her shotgun as Winn kicked and flailed and then Issy, scenting something on the wind, lifted her head and —

“Gotcha!” Alex heard as a flurry of red and blue swooped down from the sky. Kara landed a roundhouse punch on the snout of the sea creature emerging from the water, and it bellowed and sank beneath the waves. Issy let out a snort that, to Alex, felt an awful lot like a laugh as Kara did a pirouette mid-air and then hovered in front of them, her hands planted on her hips. 

“Hi, guys!” Kara said, sounding as perky as she would if she were showing up late to game night. “What’d I miss?”

“Oh, you know,” Alex said. “Touring the park, getting attacked by dinosaurs, thwarting Lex Luthor. The usual.”

“And why is…” Kara turned, squinting at Winn. “Oh hey, Winn, it’s you! What are you doing here?”

“Just hanging around,” Winn said, and Maggie let out a bark of laughter so loud that Issy, startled, grumbled over their connection. “I thought you were on book tour?”

“I was, but when nobody was answering my texts I decided to come say hi,” Kara explained. “I’ve got like 15 more minutes on my break before my next interview.”

“You might want to call them and say you’ve had to step away, Darling,” Lena said, and Kara’s eyes lit up as she swooped down to engulf Lena in a hug. 

“Oh, Sweetie. Things not go as planned?” Kara asked.

Lena said, “Lex,” and pointed toward the leg laying at the edge of the Mososaurus enclosure. Kara made a face and then turned, hugging Lena tighter. 

_Humans boring noise noise eat want mate now,_ Alex felt, as images washed over her like a toddler's screed. 

“Issy is losing patience. We have to get down,” Alex said, through the mind-scalding pain.

Maggie nodded against her shoulder. “Tell Issy she’s the best war elephant ever,” she murmured, and Alex, with a relieved laugh, sent the message through.

They moved swiftly after that: Kara helped Maggie off Issy, which Maggie definitely did not enjoy, but Maggie could no longer put any weight on her left leg so Alex was pretty sure she'd just have to suck it up. Alex insisted on dismounting on her own, and once she had, she paused, pressing her hand against the T. rex’s heaving flank. She felt a flood of images wash over the link, and though some were violent, most were strangely kind. 

“You’re a queen,” Alex murmured, and heard Issy made a low noise in response. “Now go rule your kingdom.”

Issy blew out a hard breath and waited for Alex to back away, then lumbered across the plaza. She turned as she reached the opposite side, looking back at Alex with an unexpectedly poignant gaze.

 _Mate good,_ Issy thought across the link, and Alex felt a hand on the small of her back as Maggie tucked into her side. 

_Mate good,_ Alex thought, and pulled Maggie tighter against her. _Go find yours._

Issy lifted her head to the sky, letting out an ear-splitting bellow, and then turned, her back rippling like she was shaking off a set of shackles. Her skin sparkled silver as she slipped into the shadows, until even the sound of her teeth-rattling steps faded away. 

“I should have known that someday I’d have to share you with a T. rex, Danvers,” Maggie teased, and rubbed her hand in a soothing pattern against Alex’s side. 

“We were lucky to have her,” Alex said, and felt the link, which had been growing steadily fainter, finally sever. Alex staggered as she was snapped fully into her own body, and Maggie tightened her grip, fighting to keep them both upright.

"I got you, Babe," Maggie said, and then, louder, "Kara, can we get some help over here?" 

"It's okay, I'm good," Alex said, though her head throbbed like she'd just been hit by a two by four. She took deep breaths until she could steady herself, and then rose to her full height, pulling Maggie close against her. "I think we should both get off our feet soon."

"You think?" Maggie said, and pointed at the artifact, which had fallen to the ground when it detached from Alex's temple. "You dropped something, by the way."

Alex leaned down to pick it up, cradling it in the palm of her hand. “Everything that Lex Luthor was or could have been, and he got himself killed over this.”

“Power is all that matters to some people.” Maggie tilted her head to look up at Alex, a smile playing across her face. “Lucky for Issy, you’re not one of them.”

Alex nodded, and then turned to look at Lena. She was standing at the edge of the Mososaurus enclosure, watching Kara try to figure out how to detach Winn from the crane. “Lena, I hate to pile on right now, but after careful consideration, I respectfully decline your offer of a job at this park.” 

Lena just shrugged once, nodding, and looked around, something wistful in her eyes. “John tried to warn me when I told him I wanted to continue his dream someday,” she said. “But all I could see was the picture he had painted when I was a lonely little girl, wanting to create a paradise.”

“Maybe you did,” Maggie said, but Lena, disconsolate, just shook her head.

“I think it’s fair to say that my paradise is pretty thoroughly lost,” Lena replied, gesturing at the bullet-scarred buildings and the body-strewn plaza. “All we need is one good hurricane and the slate will be wiped clean.” 

“Not here,” Maggie said, and then pointed toward the center of the island. “Beyond those walls, past all this civilization, there is a paradise, Lena. And it’s terrible and beautiful.” She glanced up at Alex, a faraway look in her eyes. “There are so many things I wish I could have shown you.”

“You’ll just have to show me with words,” Alex murmured, and leaned down to press a kiss to Maggie’s temple. 

Sam and Ruby, both shaken but unhurt, came over to join them. The rest of Lena’s staff, including two people in paramedic's uniforms, were tending to Carlos, and Alex realized she should probably go lend a hand. But she needed a moment to regroup, and besides, Winn was trying to wheedle some help out of Kara in ways she simply had to hear. 

“But you can find it, right?” Winn was saying. “Because you don’t want to know the crap I’m going to get if I say I lost it in the twenty-first century.”

“Yes, Winn, I’ll find it,” Kara replied, and set him down on the ground. “But if I have to fight that Mososaurus to get it, you’re going to owe me big time.”

“Okay,” Winn said, raising his hands. “Standing order of pot stickers, on a weekly —“ 

“Daily,” Kara interjected.

“Daily basis until the end of time,” Winn said, and then scrunched his face into a frown. “Not sure how they’ll run my card from the future, but we’ll figure it out.” He turned to look at the rest of the group, his eyes alighting on Alex. “Of all the crazy shit I’ve seen since I was back here, you riding T. rex was by far the craziest.”

“It was,” Maggie agreed, and then whispered against Alex’s ear: “It was so fucking sexy, Baby. You have no idea.”

“Ew, I heard that,” Kara whined, and Alex, blushing, saw Maggie grinning up at her with a lustful twinkle in her eye.

“Well, you know, I —“ Alex fell silent, a chill going up her spine as, off in the distance, she heard the roar of a T. rex, followed by an answering shriek from several other dinosaurs. She felt Maggie shiver, and pulled her closer, while Ruby, with a little yelp, buried her face in Sam’s shoulder. 

“Could we get out of here?” Sam asked, and then glanced over to where Carlos, with the help of some of Lena’s staff, was climbing to his feet. “It’s been a long day and I think all of us could use some sleep.”

“Yes, of course, Sam.” Lena looked around, as if taking in everything she had built and all that her brother had destroyed, and then let out a quiet sigh. “My friends, it is time to leave Jurassic World.”

“So much for that cottage on the beach, huh?” Maggie asked, and Alex, hearing the exhaustion in her wife's voice, pulled her in closer.

“Who needs a cottage on the beach when I have you?” Alex replied, and then leaned down to kiss Maggie, a love as raw as anything a T. rex might feel swamping her all the way to her bones.

“Let’s go home,” she murmured, and felt Maggie smile against her mouth. “I can’t wait to be at home with you.”


	10. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Perhaps the only cure for broken dreams was to find new ones. 
> 
> \-----
> 
> See end notes for content warnings. And a playlist!

The chopper blades whirred, as percussive as a metronome.

It was one of Lex’s choppers, and they were in it because Issy, that glorious, idiotic beast, had apparently cut through the airport runway on her way out of town. Lena’s jet was grounded until the runway could be repaved or, more likely, until a chopper strong enough could be sent to tow it out. Alex wondered if that would ever happen or if, on the balance sheet, it made more sense to write the jet off as an unrecoverable loss.

Then again, Lena was dating Kara, so the odds were pretty high that, if worse came to worse, Supergirl would perform tow truck duty.

Alex looked out through the gap in the side of chopper to where her sister, strong and proud, was flying straight toward the sun. She had insisted on serving as escort for the ragtag collection of boats and helicopters that was evacuating Lena’s staff from the island. Carlos, wounded shoulder and all, was flying this bird, and Alex, though she could have done it herself, was grateful that he was healthy enough to take the controls. Her merge with Issy had left her exhausted, and besides, the cargo in her arms was far too precious to let go.

Maggie was out cold, as Alex had hoped would happen once she’d talked her wife into taking a shot of morphine. Maggie’s ankle, now freed of its boot, had swollen up to four times its normal size, and Alex was willing to bet there was a break in there somewhere. She couldn’t quite understand how Maggie had managed to walk miles through the jungle on the injury, much less hold her own during the firefight in the plaza, but that was who Maggie was, and Alex felt lucky as hell to have her. 

She felt lucky as hell, period.

Her connection with Issy still haunted her and so, she suspected, would all the bodies she’d left in her wake. Death was always ugly, and one look at Lena, alone in her grief for her brother, made it clear that no one had escaped the weekend unscathed. But they would get through this — Sam and Ruby, with their love for each other, Winn with his unique ability to bounce back, because he was Winn, and Lena with her love for Kara, and the love Kara had for her. 

Perhaps the only cure for broken dreams was to find new ones. And if there was one thing their little found family was good at, it was that.

Maggie shifted against Alex’s shoulder, and Alex soothed her with a kiss to the crown of her head and a caress to her cheek. She felt Maggie’s arms tighten against her waist, her head lolling forward and then nestling against Alex’s chest, and longed for the hotel room in San José that was their ultimate destination. There were hurdles to overcome before then — Alex would have to update the DEO, and there would, more than likely, be a gauntlet to run with the Costa Rican authorities — but eventually she and Maggie would be alone in a room with air conditioning and, knowing Lena, a spectacular view. They would shower together, washing away the blood and the grime, and eventually they would settle on a large, comfortable bed. Alex would lay down flat and Maggie would crawl on top of her, both naked as the day the were born, and they would fall asleep like that, wrapped in each other, as afternoon became evening and then night. And when they awoke, they would make love, but tenderly, gently, careful of each bump and bruise, of each bullet graze and claw mark. They would learn how each of them had been damaged, and would coax each other toward recovery. Because there was too much left to do, and too much life to spend with each other, to do anything but be well and strong together.

Maggie shifted against her and made a soft noise, and Alex, adjusting in her seat, felt something dig into her hipbone. It was the artifact that had set this whole situation in motion, and Alex pulled it out of her pocket, holding the ancient, rune-covered device in the flat of her hand. 

Lena, her eyes red-rimmed and exhausted, turned her head then to look first at Alex, and then at the item she was holding. There was so much they could learn from it, Alex thought, and so much they could do. They could cure the sick or make life easier for those with disabilities. They could revolutionize any number of different scientific disciplines. 

Or they could let it fall into the hands of someone like Lex, who would use it to enslave the minds of both sentient and insentient alike. 

Lena’s gaze shifted to meet Alex’s again, and Alex could see all that was weighing on her mind: promise unfulfilled, dreams lost, because power untempered by wisdom was a weapon as dangerous as the atom split. And all it led to, in the end, was heartbreak. 

Alex smoothed her thumb over that ancient device and thought about Issy, who deserved her chance at a mate and some freedom, and then about Lex, who had found his destiny as a pile of bones on some lonely dung heap. Then she looked at Lena, who nodded once.

And then Alex threw the artifact into that golden, sparkling sea.

She couldn’t see the splash when it landed. Couldn’t see it fall down into the depths, so deep that even Kara might have trouble retrieving it. Couldn’t see anything but the woman in her arms, who she loved with a fierce, primal adoration that would have made a T. rex proud.

 _Mate good,_ she thought, and kissed the crown of her wife’s head as, together, they flew into a blazing sunrise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for coming along on this wild ride. It has been, hands down, my favorite thing to write ever.
> 
> Here is the [direct link](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26973073/) to all of the marvelous art by [eks4s](<a%20href=). Please don't ask me to pick a favorite image from the three. I simply can't. (Okay, Maggie falling from the Pteranodon, if you twist my arm.)
> 
> In addition, that final image of Alex and Maggie asleep in each other's arms was inspired by an image by [ViviWrites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViviWrites/pseuds/ViviWrites). It's one of my favorites.
> 
> If you enjoy a soundtrack to your big fics as much as I do, please check out this one. It accompanies the movie in my head, and if you listen in sequence, it should be pretty clear where each song fits. "Come As You Are" for Maggie crossing that dilapidated, beat to shit bridge is my personal favorite. 
> 
> [Jurassic Playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7me8bTBCxSfseWxzFyRlip?si=BcFZout6SHGu6wsSs5k1wQ)
> 
> Thanks again for taking this journey with me. I hope you had as much fun as I did.

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for: Dinosaur on human and human on human violence. Also some occasional, borderline NSFW sexy times.


End file.
